Titan Focushttp://titanfocus.info/
Sat, 28 Jul 2018 11:33:06 +000086400TitanFocushttps://feedburner.google.comhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/PTlaof69ib0/news-round-up-what-titan-actually-was-how-much-it-cost-blizzard-why-it-was-reset-and-whats-next-r91
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><strong>!!!&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/meta/titanfocus-is-dead-long-live-titanfocus-r89'>Take part in deciding TF's new direction & game.</a></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">Blizzard may not have offered any details yesterday in their cancellation announcement, however this seem to have triggered quite the news surge. Never thought I'd have the chance to do an actual news round-up for Titan, on a non-Blizzcon day!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
For a quick summary on the official cancellation announcement, in video form, see just below (or if you like walls of text, see my <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-officially-announced-as-cancelled-dealing-with-the-unanswered-questions-r90'>previous article</a>). However the meaty parts come right after this clip, starting with an actually believable and consistent leak!<br />
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&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/9rmmPwSn_fw?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Here's What Titan Actually Was &nbsp;</strong>[Kotaku seems to have multiple sources confirming some of Titan's main features, which makes this one of the most trustworthy "leaks" we ever had on the game] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://kotaku.com/heres-what-blizzards-titan-actually-was-1638632121/all'>Kotaku</a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>For starters, according to three people I spoke with, it would have taken place on a near-future version of Earth, in a science-fiction depiction of the world where mankind has successfully fought off an alien invasion. Players would join one of three factions waging a cold war over control of the planet, and zones planned for the game ranged from the west coast of the United States to Europe, South America, and Australia, according to a source. Blizzard's plan was to make the game world huge, and to keep adding areas with expansions in the years after launch.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>The main concept was this: you, the player, would maintain a mundane job&mdash;butchering, engineering, entrepreneurship&mdash;during the day, while waging clandestine warfare against opposing factions at night (or between work hours).&nbsp;</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Players would be able to select from classes with names like Reaper, Jumper, Titan, Ranger, and Juggernaut, each of which had its own special combat abilities and items, according to a source. Jumpers, for example, would be agile scouts with a teleport ability and the ability to quickly leap in and out of combat. Titans were tanks, while Rangers were snipers with cloaking and other abilities (think Nova from StarCraft II and the ill-fated StarCraft Ghost).</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>All of the people who described the game to me made a lot of Team Fortress comparisons both in terms of aesthetics and gameplay. ... Your perspective would switch between first- and third-person based on whether you were heading into combat or hanging out in a city,&nbsp;</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Not only would players have been able to run their own businesses and shops, according to one source, they could maintain relationships with non-player customers and retail staff, even starting families thanks to a complicated AI system that Blizzard hoped to implement. (One source told me that Blizzard had hired a number of former Maxis staff who worked on The Sims in order to help put all this together.)<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The goal, according to one person who worked on the game, was to construct cities that felt like living worlds, full of businesses, shops, and NPCs with schedules and behaviors based on what was happening at any given time. </span></div><br />
It's really interesting stuff and I can definitely see how development on this could have gotten out of hand. It's no joke trying to build a realistic Sims-like AI scaled to MMO size, meant to cover an entire city / society. You're also forced to make everything massive and detailed when you go for the option of using real-life Earth as the game world.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
What's funny about this info is that it confirms a leak that appeared all the way back in 2010, on a <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.nofrag.com/2010/jan/08/33345/'>french website</a>. It was one of the first leaks regarding Titan and it turns out it was the most accurate one as well. I talked about it in one of the first articles of this website, if you're interested in the <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/60-top-5-titan-clues-so-far/'>english version</a>.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
There's also a bit of optimistic news at the end:<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>One person connected to Blizzard told me that "a good handful" of the Titan team is actually still intact, despite yesterday's news that the game has been cancelled.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"They changed the code-name after that reboot," said that person. "So the project that was 'Titan' did die last year."<br />
</span></div><br />
I'd definitely recommend to take this with more than a grain of salt, as just yesterday Mike Morhaime clearly mentioned that at the moment they are not looking into developing MMOs. So whatever some of the ex-Titan team members are working on, it's probably highly edited and simplified.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;Titan cancellation cost Blizzard $50m or more&nbsp;</strong>[various estimations made by analysts regarding the development cost of Titan. $50M seems to be the lowest number, with another bidding up to $140M] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-09-23-titan-cancellation-cost-blizzard-usd50m-or-more-say-analysts'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gameindustry.biz</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"Development costs for Titan may have amounted to tens of millions, perhaps $50 million or more. This is not an unusual event, however. Blizzard has cancelled several games in various stages of development in the past. Costs for unreleased games can be significant, but launching substandard games can harm the reputation of a successful publisher such as Blizzard. Expenses for development can be considered R&D, and benefits can include invaluable training, IP and technology that can be applied to other games," explained independent analyst Billy Pidgeon.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"They realized that unless a big MMO is out-of-this-world unbelievable it won't work in today's market where it competes against a bunch of low cost options. If they felt that it just wasn't getting to that point it makes sense to cut your losses," he noted.&nbsp;</span></div><br />
I don't necessarily agree with the second quote, as Titan seems to have been ideal for being a F2P game with endless possibilities for vanity items, thus making it very accessible for low-budget players. Hell, I would have been shocked if they didn't introduce a player-made workshop in the game, where players could craft their own clothes / furniture / jewelry and sell it for real cash, with Blizzard taking a cut.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;Titan is Dead. Long Live Prometheus!&nbsp;</strong>[Seems like one of the several projects in progress in Blizzard's laboratories right now is code-named Prometheus] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4343-Blizzard-Cancels-Titan-Project'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMO-Champion</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>However, it doesn't mean that the development team is no longer working on something. Multiple sources who seem to point towards a new unannounced project from Blizzard that would be codenamed Prometheus and could be another project built around a new license for Blizzard.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Keep in mind that this last bit is very much unofficial and unconfirmed.</span></div><br />
This could very easily be the project that Kotaku mentions part of the Titan team switched to. It's hard and silly to draw any conclusions from the internal name, so I'll stop speculation here, however there's definitely something to it.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_09_2014/titan_in_destiny-HD.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Reason for Titan's Initial Reset&nbsp;</strong>[Turns out that Destiny did have an effect on <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKdcjJoXeEY'>Titan's destiny</a>] - <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/23/blizzard-officially-cancels-titan/?hubRefSrc=permalink#lf-content=95319449:216512810'>Massively</a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The original "rethinking" delay occurred because what had been developed was alarmingly similar to Destiny in theme and aesthetic. I'm guessing that Blizz tried to salvage it, but too much would have to be rebuilt to make it seem significantly different from Bungie's product (same parent company probably doesn't help).<br />
&nbsp;<br />
We saw a very early build of it in 2010 and it did have some cool hooks, but that becomes "something I saw personally" and not "something someone told me after I left," so there's that old NDA again.</span></div><br />
This seems to partially match with what we now know from Kotaku, especially the part about a future Earth which was invaded by aliens. The general idea behind the combat seems to also be approximately the same.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
If we're to believe these new bites of info, then it's actually shocking that such a huge mix-up can happen at such a high level. Assuming the "rethinking" mentioned here is the one from 2013, then it means that they noticed the huge overlap between the 2 games only when one was a year away from launch and the other around halfway through. While Bungie may not be directly connected with Blizzard, Activision is with both, so they really should have avoided this conflict much earlier. Who know, we may still have Titan if that had happened...<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">================================</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Will update the article with anything else that pops up</strong>, however meanwhile I'm extremely curious to hear what you think about Titan and its planned features. As far as I'm concerned: too ambitious? Maybe; not fun? Are you kiddin' me?! I would have played it like mad. </div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/PTlaof69ib0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Wed, 24 Sep 2014 17:58:11 +00000aa1883c6411f7873cb83dacb17b0afchttp://titanfocus.info/_/news/news-round-up-what-titan-actually-was-how-much-it-cost-blizzard-why-it-was-reset-and-whats-next-r91Titan Officially Announced as Cancelled. Dealing with the Unanswered Questions.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/5_-ccuE0eWo/titan-officially-announced-as-cancelled-dealing-with-the-unanswered-questions-r90
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Nota Bene</strong></span><br />
<div class="justify">Make sure to check the previous articles as well, for more info on <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-overwatch-new-unannounced-game-making-sense-of-them-all-r88'>Blizzard's current unannounced projects</a> and also for a bit of <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/meta/titanfocus-is-dead-long-live-titanfocus-r89'>meta discussion on the future of TitanFocus</a>.</div></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="color:#333333;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">================================</span></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/meta/titanfocus-is-dead-long-live-titanfocus-r89'>We all knew it</a> (at least those that had watched Titan more closely) however it is finally official:<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc'> Titan is no more</a>. Rest in Peace big guy. We never really knew you, but you will be missed!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."<br />
Chris Metzen, Blizzard's senior vice president of story and franchise development, called the decision to cancel Titan "excruciating."</span></div><br />
So, let's see what we've learned from this official announcement, made via Polygon. *<em>goes through the interview for the 10th time</em>* As it turns out, quite nothing!&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
We did get a confirmation that Blizzard is not currently involved in the development of any MMOs, as shown in the below quote, however this was also something highly speculated and basically taken as a given by many of us.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"I wouldn't say no to ever doing an MMO again," Morhaime said. "But I can say that right now, that's not where we want to be spending our time."</span></div><br />
It's a pretty funny quote, considering it is coming from a company that has as its main income source an MMO which will hopefully be supported by the company indefinitely, according to Chris Metzen in this same interview. This apparent contradiction I think tells us more than the entire interview.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."</span></div><br />
First of all let's get the obvious out of the way. A company as big as Blizzard, sewn together to an even bigger corporation, when deciding the fate of a project&nbsp;does not actually take into consideration if they're having fun building it or if it's what each developer / designer wants to make, or if it's something they can get passionate about. These are just buzzwords specific to the entertainment industry, used just to make it easier to explain financial and strategic decisions to the general public. The only questions that do matter are "Will it sell?", "Will it last long-term?" "How risky it is?" and other similarly practical issues.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I'm not saying this as some kind of blame, just in order to make things clearer. All developers / designers are people (doh) with families and loans and I guarantee you that the project they'll get most passionate about is the one they believe it will be most successful. It matters very little if it's an MMO or not. This applies even more to the higher up people, such as Chris Metzen and Mike Morhaime. MM would like nothing more for Blizzard to be considered THE MMO company if that would mean pulling off a new World of Warcraft, in terms of success and revenue.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"Are we the MMORPG company?" he added later, in conclusion to that line of questioning.<br />
Morhaime answered that last rhetorical question quite simply: "We don't want to identify ourselves with a particular genre. We just want to make great games every time."</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<span class="Three-Dee">So why not a second MMO? Why not Titan?</span><br />
<br />
The obvious answer would be that all big game developers are running away from the MMO genre, due to its stained reputation, the high initial investment needed and the risk factor. We got this impression even from inside Activision, as Bungie's marketing department did its best to label as not an MMO a game which was obviously an MMO. Even if it wasn't, they would have been happy to let it be called that way if they thought it would be advantageous. They obviously didn't think this.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
While likely a major part in Blizzard's decision to cancel Titan, it cannot be the only part. You do not cancel an ongoing project just because it's an MMO, no matter how risky the genre is considered these days for major developers.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I would thus like to suggest the missing piece, namely that&nbsp;<strong>Blizzard has become too big to make big projects</strong>. This I believe is true in a couple of ways.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i><strong>&nbsp;</strong>Activision Blizzard has always been defined as a company that bases its success on extremely high revenue from very</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">few projects. Blizzard especially, since before the launch of Diablo 3, they were basically making money only from World of Warcraft. An immense risk for any company.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
Alarm bells went off at both Activision and Blizzard to diversify their income sources. I can't speak for Activision, however this has become more than obvious with Blizzard. World of Warcraft was morphed to be able to bring money even if somehow they were forced to lose the subscription, thus minimising its risk value. Old franchises were reborn (SC2 / D3) and new, smaller ones were created (HotS, HS). We also suspect of at least 2 projects in the works, some close to release. This is a huge change for the company. I remember pretty much everyone, from players to press, being shocked at Blizzard launching a "small" game as Hearthstone. Well, get ready for 2,3,4 more just as "small" in the near future!</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><br />
<i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i><strong>&nbsp;</strong>In the process of becoming huge, Blizzard lost its developing discipline. When working at a very large project, the easiest thing to happen is to get absolutely lost in its details, obsesses over the smallest things and be annoyed this still-in-progress project is not already perfect. Have a look at the below quotes and tell me this isn't what happened with Titan.</p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>We were trying to do the right thing and build the right, smart product, and keep it all moving...</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>And there's times where they just drive each other batshit crazy. For as good as they are and the experience they have, sometimes you just don't find it, and you've got to get out of the damn studio and go have a beer and regroup.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
I refuse to believe that a project which Blizzard, one of the largest gaming companies in the world, "set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine", was not something we would have found fun and played the crap out of. Nothing short of showing me the game itself *<em>nudge nudge</em>* will convince me otherwise.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I am certain that the project was not flawed or too ambitious by itself, more than any game is in pre-pre-alpha. It was however too big and too ambitious as a game developed by Blizzard. If we take a look at the company's history, this should become obvious. Every project has gone through delays and there haven't been any really major projects since, well, since World of Warcraft.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"But Mynsc, surely you are forgetting Diablo 3!" You mean the game that suffered endless delays and was launched half-complete? Furthermore, for Diablo 3 Blizzard had a very clear pattern to follow, that of Diablo 2. It was making a sequel, not a brand new game. Same with Starcraft 2, which is virtually identical with the original Starcraft, except 10 years into the future.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone also do not get close, even when counted together, to the magnitude of Project Titan, from a development point of view.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
In other words, Blizzard is a huge company that since 2004 has not launched any truly major and new projects. No matter how you look at it, it is not a company that was&nbsp;suited&nbsp;to complete a very large project such as Titan. Having deep pockets is useful for such projects only if you have an inside culture that's disciplined and organised enough to be able to use them.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
This may very well be by choice (knowingly or not), as the company has always prided itself in its ability to ignore deadlines. And we may very well be looking at the company embracing this and thus focusing on smaller projects. Less risk, more income sources, a more efficient development model. Hell, if Hearthstone is of any relevance, probably even more fun games! This may very well be a winning bet for them.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"Damage the relationship. Smash the trust."</span></div><br />
However the transition period may be harder for us, the players, than for Blizzard. I find it truly sad, at a personal level (not criticising the company in any way), that I know to not expect any major AAA games from Blizzard, one of the biggest gaming companies and definitely one of my favorite ones. I love Hearthstone, I play it almost daily and I spend money on it, however it will never be Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo. Well, it technically is Warcraft, but you hopefully get my meaning.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<span class="Three-Dee">What was Titan?</span><br />
<br />
What I find even sadder is that we are heading towards never knowing what Titan was. An incredibly ambitious project, the MMO that was to replace World of Warcraft, the game too big to exist. However we do not have a single non-metaphorical detail regarding it.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
And now that it is past the point of official cancellation, we're at risk of never really finding out. Sure, we may assume some of the features and worlds in Blizzard's next games have been taken from Titan, but will we ever know this for certain?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
At this point I'm half-expecting to only find out 10 years from now, in a Blizzard-made documentary for a 20 year anniversary or something of the sorts.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I do not feel entitled to private info from a company, however I do think it would have been nice and awesome for them to include in this announcement a screenshot or at least a sentence of concrete actual info regarding Titan. Although it's true that this would have had the opposite effect of what they hoped to achieve with this, namely to make people forget about Titan and make room for new games, such as Overwatch.<br />
</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/5_-ccuE0eWo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:43:58 +0000cfecdb276f634854f3ef915e2e980c31http://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-officially-announced-as-cancelled-dealing-with-the-unanswered-questions-r90TitanFocus is Dead; Long Live TitanFocus!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/tuzoNGF--Cs/titanfocus-is-dead-long-live-titanfocus-r89
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Update 23.09.2014</strong></span>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">In news that's not really news (see our previous articles, including this one which is written more than 2 months ago), <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc'>Blizzard officially announced the cancellation of Titan</a>. Check the Polygon article for all the quotes. I'll look through them and come back with some comments if I find anything interesting.</div></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">================================</p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">I've started this website approximately 3 years and 3 months ago (time sure flies!), with the goal of covering Blizzard's upcoming "next-gen MMO". As a gamer focused mainly on MMOs and a wannabe web dev / syadmin, it was an ideal part-time hobby.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Well, it still very much is, however a <em>small</em> problem occurred meanwhile. The game went missing.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-overwatch-new-unannounced-game-making-sense-of-them-all-r88'>As mentioned in the previous article</a>, all signs point to the fact that Blizzard is no longer looking at developing a grand-scale MMO, at least not in the immediate future. Not even a small-scale MMO, although they definitely seem to be focusing on smaller scale games, as both Overwatch and the other unknown project (<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/638-metal-arms-sequel-incoming/'>Metal Arms?</a>) are rumored to be projects similar to Hearthstone when it comes to time / resource investment.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
While I'm still very much interested in Blizzard's upcoming projects, the company behind a game does not matter that much to me, as long as the project sounds interesting. Not to mention that I'm not a huge fan of Blizzard's latest developments regarding their 3 big franchises, or in the case of Starcraft, <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/648-activision-blizzard-q2-2014-results-conference-call/'>the lack of any developments </a>(shots fired).<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> &nbsp;<span class="Three-Dee">New Direction</span><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Taking the above into account, <strong>I'm officially looking for a new MMO to sink my teeth in and focus on.</strong> If Overwatch somehow will fit the bill when announced this year, then great! If not, no problem, I'm sure something else will come up. Tips and suggestions are always appreciated regarding this. The criteria for this new game would be the following:</div></p>
<ul class="bbc">
<li>MMO or highly multiplayer-focused game.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bbc">
<li>New Franchise.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bbc">
<li>Freshly announced, however not vaporware. Titan was enough tyvm.</li>
</ul>
<p><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> &nbsp;<span class="Three-Dee">Meanwhile...</span><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">Until we find this new magical game, the website will be in a transitional period. What this means exactly:</p>
<ul class="bbc">
<li>Getting ready for the release of <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.invisionpower.com/'>IPB4</a>. This is the software the website is based on and it is about to receive a major upgrade. I've already moved the website onto a more robust and better maintained server, however once the software is upgraded I'm also planning a major redesign. ETA for this is until the end of the year, depending on when IPB4 launches (the devs are almost worse than Blizzard when it comes to sticking to deadlines).</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bbc">
<li>While still keeping an eye out for any relevant Titan news, unless anything spectacular pops up, nothing of this sort will probably get posted. You may see articles regarding post-Titan conclusions, new MMOs, or other MMO related content. As always though, anything goes <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/index'>on the forums</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bbc">
<li><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://twitter.com/titan_mmo'>The Twitter feed</a> will become much more active, regarding MMO and gaming news. It will also be the easiest way to stay up-to-date with any website developments, so do follow if you are interested in what's next for TF or just hand-picked MMO news.</li>
</ul>
<p>This transitional period also means that I'm even more open to suggestions than usual, no matter how crazy. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='mailto:admin@titanfocus.info'>Drop me an email</a>, a <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/index.php?app=members&module=messaging§ion=send&do=form&fromMemberID=1'>private message</a> or just leave a comment if you have any on your mind.</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/tuzoNGF--Cs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Wed, 06 Aug 2014 20:26:31 +0000a2557a7b2e94197ff767970b67041697http://titanfocus.info/_/meta/titanfocus-is-dead-long-live-titanfocus-r89Titan, Overwatch, New Unannounced Game - Making Sense of Them Allhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/wj0-CFu9HmI/titan-overwatch-new-unannounced-game-making-sense-of-them-all-r88
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Last updated - 25.04.2014</strong></span><br />
&nbsp;<br />
It is very hard to solve the puzzle created from Blizzard's current unannounced project(s), however this is exactly what this article will be attempting. Please keep in mind that it is meant to be an ongoing report, as such it may get updated if we stumble upon new info or anyone has any new details to share, that have not been included in the initial version.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp; <span class="Three-Dee">Titan</span><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">As far as Blizzard is concerned, this codename does not exist anymore. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/blizzcon/titan-blizzcon-2013-updated-r87'>I think Mike Morhaime made this quite clear at Blizzcon</a>, where he also avoided calling it an MMO any longer. The idea that Titan is no longer an MMO <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-unlikely-to-be-a-subscription-based-mmorpg-r84'>had already been suggested</a>, at one of Activision Blizzard's financial Conference Calls.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
So it's clear that the <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/rumors-leaks/project-titan-reset-delayed-until-2016-r69'>project has been reset</a> and most likely given a new codename: Pandora, Prometheus, Rhea, Atlas, Hyperion or whichever other Saturn moons Blizzard decided to pick next. Any would be fitting, since Titan is by far the biggest one, and the impression is that they are now aiming for something smaller, more sustainable and that can actually be finished within our life-time. <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Considering all this, it seems that it's time to leave Titan behind and focus on the new projects that have been popping up. One of them is most likely the spiritual successor of Titan, in the sense that it would be a huge pointless waste to discard all the lore and video / audio assets that have been created in the last few years for Titan. This most likely applies to a good chunk of the engine / gameplay code as well.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
So far, the below two candidates have lined up for this position.</div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp; <span class="Three-Dee">Overwatch</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<br />
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_04_2014/overwatch11.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<br />
<p><div class="justify">It could be a new <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://wowpedia.org/Dark_Below'>The Dark Below</a> farse, or it could be the real deal. The fact that the application was filled on April 1st (April 2nd in EU) does not increase its odds of being real, however until it disappears, it needs to be taken into account. The trademark was been filed twice in the US (for separate categories) and once in the EU, so considering there is a fee associated with this process, someone would have to be wasting several hundred dollars to make a joke that has already been made recently. I would not want to be that guy's financial counselor. Or maybe I would.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The details of the trademark do not offer any spectacular reveals. It is included in the same standard categories as most of Blizzard's prior titles and as of now is still under examination.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_04_2014/overwatch21.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<br />
<p>The only additional info at the moment we can extract is from the name itself. Looking on <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwatch'>Wikipedia</a>, the term is defined as below:<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>In modern warfare, overwatch is the state of one small unit or military vehicle supporting another unit, while they are executing fire and movement tactics. An overwatching, or supporting unit has taken a position where it can observe the terrain ahead, especially likely enemy positions. This allows it to provide effective covering fire for advancing friendly units. The term overwatch originates in U.S. military doctrine.<br />
</span></div><br />
It is incredibly hard not to think of some kind of modern co-op shooter when reading this.<br />
<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp; <span class="Three-Dee">"Unannounced Game Title"</span><br />
&nbsp;<br />
This is the name of one of the Job sections on Blizzard's official recruitment page. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/new-section-on-blizzards-jobs-page-unannounced-game-title-titans-return-r85'>This has replaced the previous "Next-Gen MMO" section</a>, which disappeared a few months after the Titan reset was announced.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Below I've highlighted some of the more interesting lines from within the job posts currently active. Please keep in mind that these do not necessarily make a direct reference to the game itself and they are mostly guidelines for the requirements or responsibilities of the job itself. </div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div id="" class="citat"><p class="sursa"><a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=13000JU">Lead Producer</a></p><br />
with Hearthstone, Blizzard has revived its tradition of creating <strong>small and nimble game teams</strong> and we are following in those footsteps.<br />
<br />
experience shipping at least one top quality <strong>online title</strong> in a senior or lead producer role</div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div id="" class="citat"><p class="sursa"><a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=140005I">Level Designer</a></p><br />
passionate level designer with experience building compelling <strong>multi-player gameplay spaces</strong>.<br />
<br />
<strong>replayable</strong> gameplay experiences within your levels<br />
<br />
<strong>competitive multi-player</strong> games<br />
<br />
you have a strong sense for what makes a <strong>map</strong> fun to play</div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">For the other mentions, make sure to check the <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/directory.html#region=Global'>Blizzard Jobs Directory page</a>.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Some things stand out of course, such as the numerous references towards replayable levels, in a multi-player setting and also the fact that this team is intended to be a small and nimble one, similar to Hearthstone's. It's hard to believe it will really be that small, especially since the game seems much more complex, however this can hint at the fact that many of the assets for it are being taken from Titan.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The other piece of info we have on this new unannounced project is that Michael Booth is its Game Director:<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Javascript is not enabled</p><a href="https&#58;//twitter.com/_MikeBooth/status/410230930880466946">Click here to view the Tweet</a></blockquote></center></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p>Who is Michael Booth you ask? Good question! Turns out he is the founder of a company called <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Rock_Studios'>Turtle Rock Studios</a>, which before being bought by Valve, created<strong> Left 4 Dead</strong> and contributed to <strong>Counter-Strike: Condition Zero</strong>.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<span style="color:#ff8c00;"><strong>Update #1</strong></span> - It's also worth keeping in mind that this job section may include postings form multiple unannounced projects. It would be the natural thing to do if they have multiple new games under development. Something that is probable, considering small hints such as the one below (project<strong>s</strong>):<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Javascript is not enabled</p><a href="https&#58;//twitter.com/BlizzardCareers/status/459471215984271360">Click here to view the Tweet</a></blockquote></center></p>
<br />
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp; <span class="Three-Dee">Conclusion</span><br />
<br />
<br />
At the moment, this is the extent of the non-speculative information we have on Blizzard's new project(s).<br />
&nbsp;<br />
It's clear that both the Overwatch name and at least some of the Unannounced Title's open jobs and director hint towards a new online, co-op shooter. This also makes the chance that they are the same project quite high. And in order to stick to the Occam's Razor's fewer assumptions rule, it's also safer to consider Overwatch the successor of Titan. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&ie=UTF-8&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nofrag.com%2F2010%2Fjan%2F08%2F33345%2F'>Especially since Titan had also been rumored to be a FPS at one point</a>.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
This may not be the case though and unfortunately, as always when it comes to Blizzard's unannounced projects, no clear conclusions can be drawn. However do keep an eye on this article, as we will be doing our best to update it with new info! If you have any, please leave it in the comments or contact me directly through email or PM.</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/wj0-CFu9HmI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Thu, 24 Apr 2014 17:53:06 +00009dcb88e0137649590b755372b040afadhttp://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-overwatch-new-unannounced-game-making-sense-of-them-all-r88http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/yzxtsWzPtEE/titan-blizzcon-2013-updated-r87
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify">First day, first mention. Nothing big, however it is good to know that Titan is still in the works, even in whatever new form it is. New for Blizzard of course, since it can't be new to us since we never met the old one, unfortunately. Maybe someday, at another Blizzcon, they'll tell us what they initially had planned. <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Anyway, here's Mike Morhaime talking a bit about Titan. Hopefully more to come, although it's clear they don't have any plans to really talk about the game at this year's event.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/V457JhDb8xo?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="color:#ff8c00;"><strong>Update: </strong></span>With Blizzcon now over,&nbsp;It seems that this was the only Titan update they planned on giving and as such got it out of the way quickly, right from the start, in order for everyone to focus on their 5 other games for the rest of the event. Can't really argue with the logic, since it's obvious they didn't have anything real to share about the game.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
From Mike Morhaime's few words we can draw the conclusion that they do not fully support the Titan codename any more, as he made sure to avoid it and only refer to the game as their "Unannounced Project". They're also avoiding the "MMO" term as well.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Hard to say what this means, however at this point I think it's safe to say that the new "Unannounced Game Title" section on their <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/directory.html#region=Global'>Jobs Directory page</a> is connected with Titan, since there was no other project hinted at Blizzcon and the name of the section fits with their new naming policy.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Jeffrey Kaplan is still MIA unfortunately, as such I think it's also safe to presume that he is still in charge of <strike>Titan</strike> The Unannounced Project. That's good news I guess, although I'm sure we were all really hoping to hear a status update on his situation at Blizzard and what has he been working on.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
This clearly was not the year of Titan, however if this new direction they've taken proves more sustainable, hopefully starting with next year's Blizzcon Titan will not be the black sheep of the Blizzard family any more and the Blizzard folks will start to mention it more openly. The reset seems to have indeed made serious changes to the project, however I'm sure that most of the foundation was kept, as such this new optimised direction should bring it to a marketable state soon enough. I mean, right?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="color:#ff8c00;"><strong>Update #2:</strong></span> Not exactly a Titan mention, however during an interview with Gamespot @ Blizzcon,&nbsp;Blizzard COO Paul Sams addressed the company's availability to launch new franchises. Worth a listen, as it also addresses Blizzard's relation with consoles and the Warcraft movie. New franchises part starts at approximately 5:25.</div></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http&#58;//www.gamespot.com/videos/embed/6416052/" width="640" height="400" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/yzxtsWzPtEE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 08 Nov 2013 21:02:59 +000031fefc0e570cb3860f2a6d4b38c6490dhttp://titanfocus.info/_/news/blizzcon/titan-blizzcon-2013-updated-r87Titan @ Blizzcon - Short Analysis and Predictionshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/_SCu1_6b7fc/titan-blizzcon-short-analysis-and-predictions-r86
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_10_2013/blizzcon2013-2.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="justify">With Blizzcon less than a month way, I think it's the perfect moment to assess Titan's chances of making an appearance. I'll start by taking a look at two of the major hints we have related to this.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
First of all, it's important to revisit the last Blizzcon, from two years ago, and see what happened then. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/opinions/will-blizzards-titan-mmo-be-attending-blizzcon-bashiok-says-no-r28'>The "show" actually started a month before the convention</a>, as news sites started speculating that we'll see an official announcement during Blizzcon. At that point, Bashiok decided to step in and mention that no, there won't be any Titan unveiling, which in the end proved to be true.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
During the event itself, no mention of Titan was made <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/blizzcon/titan-mmo-announcements-at-blizzcon-r30'>until the very end</a>. In the absolute last interview shown on the live stream, Rob Pardo finally approached the subject and gave us a few phrases of info. Not much, however <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/67-blizzcon-aftermath/'>enough to keep the ball rolling and keep us occupied</a> for quite a bit. <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The second factor that might play an important role in how much air-time Titan receives is the amount of space that needs to be reserved for the already announced games. And looking at this, it's probably going to be the busiest Blizzcon in history.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Two of the major three franchises have expansions to show-off (Diablo and World of Wacraft). And that's not to say Starcraft 2 won't make an appearance, as there is a "small" tournament called the WCS Global Finals which will take place throughout the entire weekend.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
However, there is even more! I wouldn't be surprised if HearthStone will have its official launch during Blizzcon or at least having a date announced for it. Regardless of this, since the game is already hugely popular, everyone will want to ask questions about it and I'm sure the Blizzard folks have already put time aside in order to answer them.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Javascript is not enabled</p><a href="https&#58;//twitter.com/Rob_Pardo/status/371479527970455552">Click here to view the Tweet</a></blockquote></center></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
And if this was not already enough, the mysterious Blizzard All-Stars is screaming to get out (or rather we're screaming for it to come out) and even by Blizzard time, its announcement is way overdue. With the "Heroes of the Storm" trademark confirmed, it's really looking like the info gates will finally be blown open on this project.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
These two factors considered and also adding to the equation<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/rumors-leaks/project-titan-reset-delayed-until-2016-r69'> the elephant in the room</a>, unfortunately the chances are not good for Titan to make a noteworthy appearance at this year's Blizzcon. The pre-show period is already much more calm than two years ago. Nobody is even bothering to ask if Titan will be there as the answer is pretty clear in most people's minds. For all we know, the game is actually in a less advanced state than two years ago, "thanks" to the recent reset.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
That being said, looking at the optimistic side as well, there are hints that <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/new-section-on-blizzards-jobs-page-unannounced-game-title-titans-return-r85'>development on the project might have restarted</a>. Blizzard also "owes" us a better explanation as to what exactly happened to the project and when we'll hear about it again. It's in their best interest I believe to keep Titan on everyone's radar, as it adds a certain degree of hope and excitement in relation to the company's future, so they should be looking to clear the surrounding waters a bit.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
With the analysis out of the way (let me know in the comments if you have something else to add), it's time we jump to the fun part! Predictions! <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/o.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' /><br />
<br />
Below you can find mine. If you have any others to add or don't agree with the chances, let me know in the comments and I'll input yours in as well. It's not a full-on contest, however it will be pretty fun to see how wrong we were after Blizzcon passes! <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><center><table style='width: 90%; padding: 0; margin: 0;'><caption class="mycaption"> Titan @ Blizzcon predictions (0 - not going to happen, 10 - sure thing)</caption><tr><th class="myth">Author</td><th class="myth">Prediction</td><th class="myth">Chance</td></tr><tr><td class="mytd">mynsc</td><td class="mytd">Titan officially announced</td><td class="mytd">0<br />
1- jezbelle</td></tr><tr><td class="alt">mynsc</td><td class="alt">Status update from Rob Pardo, just before the end</td><td class="alt">8 - me, Venald</p>
<p>10 - Valkata, papaz,&nbsp;jezbelle<br />
5 - Eremite, ThunderGod<br />
</td></tr><tr><td class="mytd">mynsc</td><td class="mytd">Alpha / beta / launch estimate</td><td class="mytd">2<br />
0 - Valkata,&nbsp;jezbelle, ThunderGod<br />
1- papaz, Eremite</td></tr><tr><td class="alt">mynsc</td><td class="alt">Clarification on some of the rumors we've heard this year:<br />
not a brand new franchise, will be out on consoles, Jay Wilson working on it, etc.</td><td class="alt">5 - me,&nbsp;jezbelle<br />
3 - Valkata, ThunderGod<br />
2 - papaz,&nbsp;1 - Eremite<br />
5 - Venald</td></tr><tr><td class="mytd">mynsc</td><td class="mytd">A sign that Jeffrey Kaplan is still alive.</td><td class="mytd">9 - me, papaz&nbsp;</p>
<p>5 - Valkata,&nbsp;1 - Eremite<br />
8 - Venald, 0 - ThunderGod</td></tr><tr><td class="alt">mynsc</td><td class="alt">Concept Art</td><td class="alt">2<br />
0 - Valkata, papaz, Eremite, ThunderGod<br />
1- jezbelle</td></tr><tr><td class="mytd">mynsc</td><td class="mytd">Any other tease</td><td class="mytd">4</p>
<p>0 - Valkata, papaz<br />
1 - Eremite,&nbsp;8.5 - Venald<br />
3 - jezbelle, 5 - ThunderGod</td></tr></table></center><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Also guys, <strong>TF will be represented at Blizzcon</strong>, thanks to some of our awesome members that managed to snag tickets:&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/user/315-eremite/'>Eremite</a>,&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/user/636-jonnyshiz/'>jonnyshiz</a>,&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/user/179-sarnakyle/'>Sarnakyle</a>&nbsp;(and special "guest" appearances from<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/user/294-sayaf/'>&nbsp;sayaf</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/user/516-velocity/'>Velocity</a>). They've been kind (and awesome) enough to&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/546-blizzcon-ambassadors-for-you/'>put themselves at your disposal</a>&nbsp;so do let them know if you have any requests in mind. They don't even have to be remotely reasonable! If not, wish them a splendid weekend and tell them how much you envy them! <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/_SCu1_6b7fc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sun, 13 Oct 2013 13:36:22 +00009872ed9fc22fc182d371c3e9ed316094http://titanfocus.info/_/news/blizzcon/titan-blizzcon-short-analysis-and-predictions-r86http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/MkSnxmpq7x4/new-section-on-blizzards-jobs-page-unannounced-game-title-titans-return-r85
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_09_2013/titansback2.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="justify">A new jobs section has recently appeared on <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/directory.html#region=Global'>Blizzard's website</a> and it's teasingly called <em>Unannounced Game Title</em>. It currently holds 6 job entries, 5 of them for various visual artist positions. This comes just a bit over one month after the <em>Next Gen MMO </em>section was completely removed, probably due to the <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/rumors-leaks/project-titan-reset-delayed-until-2016-r69'>Titan reset </a>that was announced in May. Here are a few fragments from the freshly added job postings:</div><br />
<div id="" class="citat"><p class="sursa"><a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=13000DH">3D Character Animator</a></p>The ideal candidate has experience modeling and<strong> texturing character assets in a stylized universe</strong>. A solid grasp of form, color, and light for both 2D and 3D art assets is essential. The 3D character artist must also have experience working with a diverse range of characters, creatures, weapons, and equipment both organic and mechanical in nature.</div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div id="" class="citat"><p class="sursa"><a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=13000DL">Lead Server Programmer</a></p>This individual will lead the development of server architecture and implementation of an exciting new Blizzard game and will lead a group of programmers to accomplish various server programming tasks.</div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<div id="" class="citat"><p class="sursa"><a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=13000DE">Senior VFX Artist</a></p>The ideal candidate has extensive experience working with 3D packages, in-game FX systems to create a wide range of VFX <strong>(fire, smoke, explosions, etc.)</strong>, as well as a general understanding of good game play communication.</div><br />
<div class="justify">As is usual the case with such <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-box_testing'>black box observations</a>, this new development raises more questions than it answers.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Is this new section referring to Titan? The title fits, because Blizzard has made it a point recently to note that the game was never officially announced. This would mean that the project is back on track, but the way the title has been reworded might also suggest that it suffered drastic changes. Is it still an MMO? Is this new "Titan" maybe just using assets and tech but going in a whole different direction gameplay wise?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
What if it's not Project Titan at all? It's definitely not HS (already announced), All-Stars (shares a section with SC2 on the jobs page) or any of their other 3 big franchises. So does this mean Blizzard is engaged in a new major project? And where does that leave Titan?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
There are no certainties, except that Blizzard is indeed cooking something new, whether it's Titan, a derivative of Titan or something completely unknown.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
What do you think?</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/MkSnxmpq7x4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 14 Sep 2013 18:07:40 +0000eecca5b6365d9607ee5a9d336962c534http://titanfocus.info/_/news/new-section-on-blizzards-jobs-page-unannounced-game-title-titans-return-r85http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/CgENf1Bxay0/titan-unlikely-to-be-a-subscription-based-mmorpg-r84
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"> <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>08.08.2013 - Jobs Update:</strong></span>&nbsp;The "Next-Gen MMO" section on Blizzard's Jobs Directory page <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/363-project-titan-jobs/page-2#entry8145'>is now gone</a>.</div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/gallery/category_28/gallery_1_28_107727.png" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="justify">Speaking to share-holders at <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/503-activision-blizzard-q2-2013-results-conference-call/'>Activision Blizzard's Q2 2013 Results Conference Call</a>, Mike Morhaime, the CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, had a few words especially reserved for Project Titan.</div><br />
<br />
<div id="" class="citat"><p class="sursa"><a href="#">Mike Morhaime</a></p><strong>We're in the process of selecting a new direction for Project Titan</strong> and re-envisioning what we want the game to be. And while we can't talk about the details yet, <strong>it is unlikely to be a subscription based MMORPG</strong>.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I also want to reiterate that <strong>there has been not been an official announced or projected release date</strong>. What I can say is that the commitment to quality has always been at the core of Blizzard values and we've gone through this type of iterative development process several times in the past on our way to creating genre-defining games.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>As we continue our assessment, we have shifted some of the resources from the team</strong> to our other franchises including WoW and Blizzard All-Stars which we believe will add immense value to those projects.</div><br />
<div class="justify">Not a very clear statement, especially since it was pre-written. Will it be a subscription-less MMORPG, or will it also be a different type of game all-together? Unless I'm missing something, the way he worded the phrase leaves room for debate.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Even with the ambiguity of the statement, this does help clear a bit the exact reason(s) for the <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/news/rumors-leaks/project-titan-reset-delayed-until-2016-r69'>recent reset</a>. We had <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/opinions/why-did-blizzard-delay-project-titan-speculation-poll-r71'>already considered</a> that it was a pause designed to give them time to look into different business models (like F2P) and / or different game-play options, and Mike Morhaime's short speech definitely adds strength to these two options.</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/CgENf1Bxay0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Thu, 01 Aug 2013 21:26:19 +00006cdd60ea0045eb7a6ec44c54d29ed402http://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-unlikely-to-be-a-subscription-based-mmorpg-r84Vivendi vs ActiBlizz Series Continues. Latest episode: The Cash Grab. Any Effect on Titan?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/XX8iY9ETjiU/vivendi-vs-actiblizz-series-continues-latest-episode-the-cash-grab-any-effect-on-titan-r83
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_07_2013/vivendi-activision-blizzard-sale-news-1.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color:#ff8c00;"><strong>The Facts</strong></span></span><br />
<div class="justify"><strong>Update:</strong> <em>Looks like in the end, Activision Blizzard managed to avoid the special dividend Vivendi had planned to issue and <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=780538'>bought itself back from the holding giant</a>[PDF], becoming an <strong>independent company</strong>. They did not avoid debt however, as this self-purchase was founded with $1.2 billion cash on hand and $4.6 billion debt proceeds. As mentioned below though, they still have at least $3 billion cash in their coffers, that they chose not to use for this transaction. So in the end, most of the below conclusions do stand, from a financial point of view at least, although being a "free" company is definitely a big win for the gaming giant and something that's well worth the huge investment.&nbsp;</em><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Vivendi, a humongous holding company (which basically means it produces nothing, just owns and manages shares of other companies), has reached the conclusion that having&nbsp;$17.3 billion in debt is not a very good thing. They're in danger of having their credit rating downgraded, their stock keeps going down and are exposed to other nasty stuff that can result from such a high debt. So they're doing their best to reduce it. They call it slimming down and focusing on their media portfolio. As a result, any company that does not fit this title is being traded off.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
They're already mostly done with selling their 53% stake in Maroco Telecom for $5.5 billion and it's rumored that the next step is doing the same with the shares of SFR, a telecom giant just as big, with the difference that Vivendi fully owns it. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/7/2/3131508/vivendi-selling-61-percent-stake-in-activision-blizzard-worth-8-1'>As we found out about a year ago</a>, Activision Blizzard was also put on sale. Unfortunately for them, and apparently for the gaming giant as well, nobody was interested enough to pay the required price. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323829104578619832424766570.html'>So they're switching to plan B</a>, namely siphoning the funds from ActiBlizz through a special dividend.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
When the pair went under Vivendi's hold, they had a deal in place preventing the parent company of doing such special cash requests without the approval of the other board members. The deal has expired just this month, and since Vivendi holds 63% of the controlling shares, they now have the power to do such a cash grab. And they definitely are not shy about it, with things apparently being in motion already.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Word is they've settled on a $3 billion dividend, which would give Vivendi $2 billion in cash, considering they hold about 2/3 of the stock. Activision Blizzard has that and more saved up, <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/404-activision-blizzard-q1-2013-results-conference-call/'>$4.6 billion to be more precise</a>. The problem is that only about $1.6 billion of that sum is inside the US, the rest being neatly deposited in various off-shore accounts. This means that they can't use those money unless they want them introduced into the US system, which would mean certain tax obligations that they've been trying to avoid. So to pay a $3 billion dividend, they will probably opt to borrow at least $1.4 billion, hence giving the company something that it has done its best to avoid until now: debt.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color:#ff8c00;"><strong>How Will it Affect the Company and Implicitly Project Titan?</strong></span></span><br />
I think there are two main factors to consider here.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
First of all, things are not as dire as we might think, as I see it anyway. All companies pay such dividends at some point in time and with the amount of cash saved up, you could say that ActiBlizz is in a decent spot to do such a thing. They might've hoped to be able to use these savings + debt to buy themselves back from under Vivendi, but I guess that and other plans will have to be put on hold.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Also, as it's obvious from comparing the numbers, the debt is in a way "fake", because all in all they have more money saved up than what they need to pay to their share-holders, just that it's distributed in other regions than US.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Also worth considering is that this was reserve money. Cash saved up for such special events, like paying dividends, buying something or extremely "rainy days". Losing a chunk of this shouldn't affect day-today operations or mid-term plans, not right now at least.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
And this leads me to the second factor. I think the question "how will this affect Titan?" is at the wrong verb time. It should be "How has this affected Titan?" since I'm sure this move from Vivendi was not a surprise for the ActiBlizz management. They knew when the deal that was protecting them would expire, they knew of Vivendi's intent to get rid of its debt for at least a few years, so they had plenty of time to prepare. Sure, they probably also tried to avoid it (mainly through a buy-back), but at the same time if they had any "adjustments" to implement they probably already put them in place.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I'm definitely not saying that Titan's "reset" was Blizzard getting the memo from above, but if something like that would happen, it probably already did.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color:#ff8c00;"><strong>The Bottom Line</strong></span></span><br />
I think that if things continue to go well for the gaming giant, this move from Vivendi will have no impact whatsoever on any of its current and future projects, including Titan. The main change is that the company is now a bit more exposed. A streak of weaker than expected launches or a problem in the market could place them in trouble faster than before.&nbsp;So investing in new franchises should still be on top of their priority list, especially since they need to reflect confidence and potential after taking this hit (and dealing with a shrinking WoW), just that they'll need to be a bit more careful to not screw up.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
And looking just at Blizzard, they might be a bit more exposed than Activision just because of the way they "cook" their games. If things go bad in the future, financially speaking, Blizzard will have to make some drastic changes to its process, with the expected result of streamlining it and eliminating the so called "iterations" that throw back the planned release dates by years. <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />&nbsp;<br />
</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/XX8iY9ETjiU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:27:23 +0000cedebb6e872f539bef8c3f919874e9d7http://titanfocus.info/_/news/blizzard/vivendi-vs-actiblizz-series-continues-latest-episode-the-cash-grab-any-effect-on-titan-r83http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/vRTMa_a7EdI/mmo-round-up-05072013-the-repopulation-everquest-next-planetside-2-7-ways-do-die-more-r82
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"> <strong>MMO Round-Up restarting on Friday, July 19th at the latest, in the new by-weekly format.</strong></p><p><em class='bbc'>The MMO Round-Up feature is morphing a bit. While I've learned quite a bit from it already and I'm having fun doing it on a daily basis, the reward over time spent ratio is far from ideal so it's hard for me to justify this being a daily thing. For example, it occupies more than half of the time I usually allocate for doing stuff on TF each day. I'm certain I can use those hours more efficiently, especially on some long-term features I've been looking at for a while now.&nbsp; <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /></em><br />&nbsp;<br /><em class='bbc'>So considering this, the MMO Round-Up from now on will be a weekly, maybe bi-weekly column (depending on the news) and I'll focus more on "out of the ordinary" and interesting news, rather than patch notes, holiday events and other boring stuff that you probably already know if you're playing that certain game.</em><br />&nbsp;<br /><em class='bbc'>On a related note, this section (same as the Titan one) is still open to contributions. If you have an idea and a bit of summer free-time put aside, do let me know.&nbsp; <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /></em><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Defiance&nbsp;</strong>[new video on the Volge, the main bad guys of the Defiance universe and the protagonists of the game's newest event.]</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/IGj4hjigtNE?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Planetside 2&nbsp;</strong>[I mentioned the new Battle Islands feature in a&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-01072013-swtor-planetside-2-archeage-eve-standing-more-r78'>previous round-up</a>. In an interview with ZAM, Matt Higby, PS2's creative director gave ample details on this new addition.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32672'><span style="font-size:10px;">ZAM</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>In terms of the map itself, Matt explained what he thought Nexus would bring that would excite PlanetSide 2 players.</strong><br />Compared to our current maps, it&rsquo;s a lot tighter so it allows for a lot more tactical movement, especially within the facilities and outposts. There are a lot more underground areas, places to have very focused infantry fights. We have a few areas like that in PlanetSide 2, such as Bio Labs and a lot of the facilities that have been revamped have that within them.<br />&nbsp;<br />Because Nexus is a relatively smaller map, the density of that is a lot tighter. So if you just want to play infantry and just go from outpost to outpost, your ability to do that and remain in the action pretty much non-stop is a lot better within Nexus.</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Speaking of making broadcast gameplay exciting, I wondered what steps the team at SOE was taking toward making PlanetSide 2 more effective as an eSports experience for viewers. Matt was&mdash;as always&mdash;honest in his assessment that work still needed to be done.</strong><br />I consider it to be our biggest challenge; contextualizing the action in PlanetSide 2 to make a compelling viewing experience is an enormous challenge. It needs two things to come together really well, that is the observer camera system; allowing you to see not only an overview of where the world is, but also first-person views of what the player is seeing. Being able to, at a glance, see a scoreboard and the mini-map, to understand where the players are moving and what they&rsquo;re accomplishing, all those pieces are really important and that&rsquo;s entirely on our end to develop.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Final Fantasy XIV&nbsp;</strong>[A new gameplay video, also showcasing the PC version.]</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/--a6__DnOdc?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EverQuest: Next&nbsp;</strong>[This is a seriously awesome compilation of EVERYTHING we know about the game so far. Everything. :o ] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.eqnexus.com/forums/index.php?threads/everquest-next-compendium.188/'><span style="font-size:10px;">EQNexus</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>The largest sandbox in history</strong><br />Direct quote from John Smedley at SOE Live 2012<br />&nbsp;<br /><strong>Playable version by the end of the year</strong><br />Players will get their hands on an actual release version of what we're doing late &#91;this] year - and I don't mean a beta<br />&nbsp;<br /><strong>Uses Forgelight game engine</strong><br />Currently used in Planetside 2<br />...</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade&nbsp;</strong>[The dev team has planned two 1-hour AMAs for today. One has already taken place (see the link to the right) and one will take place at 4pm EST (1PM PST, 9pm UTC). Live stream below. The answers from both sessions will be posted on the&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/'>game's subreddit</a>] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/40kcrusade/b/426139667'><span style="font-size:10px;">Twitch VOD</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="378" width="620" id="live_embed_player_flash" data="http://www.twitch.tv/widgets/live_embed_player.swf?channel=40kcrusade" bgcolor="#000000"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.twitch.tv/widgets/live_embed_player.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="hostname=www.twitch.tv&channel=40kcrusade&auto_play=false&start_volume=25" /></object><a href="http://www.twitch.tv/{starcraft}" class="trk" style="padding:2px 0px 4px; display:block; width:345px; font-weight:normal; font-size:10px; text-decoration:underline; text-align:center;"><br />Watch live video from 40kcrusade on www.twitch.tv</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Repopulation&nbsp;</strong>[PvP Overview - in a nutshell, EVE Online warfare with some interesting additions. Awesome.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://therepopulation.com/index.php/game-features/pvp-overview'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>PvP can range from enjoying combat in the contested regions, doing battle with your faction allies against the other main faction, or enemies as decided on by alliances with other nations in the game.The nation system is one of the core elements of The Repopulation. It can lead to numerous PvP opportunities such as the sieging or defending of cities, or battling for control of vital resources. Independent nations that we refer to as &ldquo;Rogue Nations&rdquo; can form their own alliances and become a bastions of peace, or a chaotic group of mercenaries attacking anything on sight.<br />&nbsp;<br />Players begin the game as Reserve members of the military, which means that they may not attack or be attacked in Protected regions. Each of the two main factions has roughly a third of the world marked as owned and protected by their faction. Reserve military members may not attack or be attacked by rival factions while in these protected regions. There is a full complement of tiers in these protected regions, so players who wish to avoid PvP entirely, may do so on Normal servers.<br />&nbsp;<br />You may switch to Active military at any time, but if you do so you will be unable to switch back to Reserve for a period of time. Active Military members can attack or be attacked by other Active Military members of hostile nations. Once you step outside of the protected regions and into the contested regions you are under the same rules of active military. Enemies of your faction or nation are able to attack you at will.</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span>Nations can take control of plots of land in contested regions to build cities. Once a plot of land is taken, the nation and those in charge of the city can increase the size of the city by providing resources for the city and structures to help the city prosper and grow. As the city grows, it will be better suited to defend itself.<br />&nbsp;<br />Cities can also be used to launch sieges on rival nations. We'll cover sieges in detail in a future article, but suffice to say that the sieging process will require careful planning, and will be window based so you won&rsquo;t wake up to find your hard work completely lost. The risk of losing a city is very real though. Nations would be wise to form alliances, and not alienate themselves from the rest of the server. Cities provide defense to friendly players, as well as being hubs for shopping, entertainment and missions.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/quLDKrFDE54" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fHyXxNyN9f0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>10 Franchises that would make great MMOs</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[A pretty terrible list, but with a few gems on it like Fallout and Planescape Torment.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/04/the-perfect-ten-franchises-that-would-make-great-mmos/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>7. Enter Player One</strong><br />&nbsp;<br />OK, Ernest Cline's geek novel about a group of gamers in the near-future who compete online to become the successors of a massive software company might be the least-known item on this list. Still, it's absolutely perfect for an MMO conversion because the book is about an MMO to end all MMOs. The online game, OASIS, is every game and virtual world and sandbox experience known to humanity, and the fact that it's about leveling up, collecting loot, building forts, staging massive PvP battles, and fighting evil corporations makes this an irresistible notion.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Have traditional MMOs had their time?</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[In other words, have publishers and devs FINALLY realize that the WoW model is not a good bet for the future or even the present? About time.. Now I just hope they don't go over-board with MOBAs and Shooters. What? Too late for that? Oh well.. ] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-04-have-traditional-mmos-had-their-time'><span style="font-size:10px;">Eurogamer</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>"I don't see the traditional MMO having much of a chance in the future, but games that bring tons of people together - they're definitely going to exist. So you'll have a subset of it, but I'm hoping it will diversify a little bit more," he elaborates. "Definitely you're not going to have the big subscription-based MMOs any more - those are dead."</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span>DayZ and Minecraft came from nothing. They were creations of one brain in each case, built quickly and cheaply. They blossomed because they were new, risky and built on the creativity and participation of their players more so than their creators; although they weren't blank slates, they weren't staid, monolithic theme park MMOs trying to please everybody either. They had what came to be acknowledged as a tightly focused appeal, despite their many players and shared worlds, and that is now catching; Camelot Unchained, for example, is a Kickstarter MMO with a budget of $5 million and an unwavering focus on a niche audience that wants a hardcore PVP game. In some respects it's risky and uncompromising, but it seems wise to the lessons learned by its most recent peers, which is exciting.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Skybox pleasures</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[When's the last time you looked up in an MMO? I remember being floored by Outland's sky, but ever since I can't really remember any other MMO world that impressed me with its background. Here's a short look on the skyboxes of a few popular games.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://gamingsf.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/skybox-pleasures/'><span style="font-size:10px;">GamingSF</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 80px;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/rift%20sky.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p></div></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 80px;">&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>3. RIFT</strong><br />Rift has some very beautiful backdrops, the view from Meridian across towards Lantern Hook in the Droughtlands for instance. The game makes very good use of night and day cycles, plus some impressive weather effects (e.g. blizzards in the Iron Pine Peaks). The most spectacular use of the skybox though is the River of Souls &lsquo;Milky Way&rsquo; style effect that featured in the first post launch live event and since in the Raid / Chronicle of the same name.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">MMO Design</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Player Controlled Progression&nbsp;</strong>[random vs controlled upgrades to a player's char. Which is better in which situations.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoshBycer/20130703/195574/Player_Controlled_Progression.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>In the past I've talked about progression in game design by defining it as short-term and long-term. Where short-term represented minor or constant changes like new equipment. And long-term were major changes that affected how the player continues to play such as runes in Diablo 3.<br />&nbsp;<br />However we can further break down progression based on the amount of control the player has over it and as always, there are specific advantages and disadvantages to consider.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> 7 Ways To Die&nbsp;</strong>[A Survival Horror Open World Crafting Sandbox Game. :O I'm pretty sure they managed to hit every buzz word there is in this space. It's hard to say how close to this description the game will land (it's still in Alpha), but it's interesting nonetheless and definitely worth keeping track of.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://7daystodie.com/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website with more info</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/Mk_Rt9jGy14?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Blizzard's San Diego Comic-Con Schedule&nbsp;</strong>[A sizeable presence, with heavy focus on World of Wacraft and with panels on Blizzard's art, storylines and licensed products.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10357982/blizzard-2013-san-diego-comic-con-schedule-7-3-2013'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Blog</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>World of Warcraft Tribute Signings (UDON booth #4529)</strong><br />A selection of top-flight artists will be on hand to sign and maybe even sketch in your copy of World of Warcraft Tribute. Tribute artists scheduled to appear include Justin Bechtold, Kevin Cameron, Sean Galloway, Matt Grigsby, Dax Gordine, Gregory Higerd, Don Ho, Edwin Huang, Arun Naina, AJ Nazzaro, Laura Rivera, Emmanuel Fuentes, Patrick Scullin, and Arnold Tsang. (Subject to change)</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Blizzard Licensing Panel (Hall 6BCF)</strong><br />Chris Metzen (Blizzard Entertainment SVP Story and Franchise Development) and a team of esteemed guests reveal never-before-seen licensed products and plans for 2013/2014. Talk to the designers, writers and artists as we dig into toys, novels, comics, statues, and more. Panel and extended game Q&A session moderated by Kat Hunter (host of BlizzCon coverage on DIRECTV).</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7229152.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7229152/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;<br /><strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/pingwingtv'>PingWingTV</a>&nbsp;- WoW raiding, good music and awesome rants.&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br /><strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/493-blizzard-and-titan-is-blizzard-being-unfair/'>Is Blizzard being unfair?</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/vRTMa_a7EdI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 05 Jul 2013 17:11:48 +00004c5bde74a8f110656874902f07378009http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-05072013-the-repopulation-everquest-next-planetside-2-7-ways-do-die-more-r82http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/WD-tMLY8gQg/mmo-round-up-04072013-guild-wars-2-firefall-wildstar-twitch-more-r81
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[Significant changes to the Achievement System - reward structure added and also major modifications to the UI] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/new-account-achievement-rewards-incoming/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/guild%20wars%202%20achievements.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p>&nbsp;<br /><div class="quote2"><span>Every point that you&rsquo;ve earned while adventuring across Tyria will count towards exciting rewards, including:<br />&nbsp;<br /><u>Exclusive armor and weapon skin unlocks</u>&nbsp;&ndash; including Radiant armor, Hellfire armor, and the Zenith weapon set.<br /><u>Permanent account bonuses</u>&mdash;permanent boosts to Magic Find, experience from kills, karma gain, and more. Earn achievement points on any character and get rewards for all of your characters.<br /><u>Currencies</u>&nbsp;&ndash; gold, gems, karma, and laurels.<br /><u>PvP Rewards</u>&mdash;skins and glory boosters.<br /><u>WvW Rewards</u>&mdash;use Badges of Honor and siege blueprints to help push your server to victory.<br /><u>Utility Items</u>&mdash;Instant Repair Canisters, Revive Orbs, powerful boosters, and more.<br /><u>Unique Titles</u>&mdash;show off your dedication to your fellow players.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Dragon's Prophet&nbsp;</strong>[SOE's newest MMO to receive its first major update since entering Open Beta about a month ago] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.dragonspropheteurope.com/en/news/major-open-beta-content-update-213'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>The celebration of the annual Ancient Shadow Festival begins today in remembrance of the great Warthorne who sacrificed his life during the Second Dragon War. You can take part in this commemorative event by solving a series of quests and being rewarded with a unique title. Most importantly, this is an opportunity for Auratians to learn more about their deep past.<br />While the heat of summer encompasses Europe, a sign of what&rsquo;s to come is emerging in the frozen landscape of Wintertide. Winter is well and truly coming to Auratia. Trample through this snowy new region with your dragons and explore three new dungeons.</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span>If all that wasn&rsquo;t enough, you will soon be able to move into your very own home with the new "dream islands", utilize new commands to interact with your dragon in different ways and experience an increased level cap of 70.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[No expansion planned for the game. Pretty weird considering it's on a B2P model. I guess the in-game store is pretty successful.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-its-unlikely-guild-wars-2-will-ever-get-an-expansion-pack'><span style="font-size:10px;">Eurogamer</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>"So right now we're not really looking at expansions as an option," lead content designer Mike Zadorojny told me on his visit to London last week.<br />&nbsp;<br />"It's something that's on the table but it's not something we're focused on, because what we want to do is - our idea here is that with Living World, we can do what expansions would have done but do it on a more regular basis."<br />&nbsp;<br />I pressed him to tell me whether there would be a Guild Wars 2 expansion this year and he shook his head to indicate no. What about next year, I asked?<br />&nbsp;<br />"If we do this right," he answered, "we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy."</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span>Sales of Guild Wars 2 are officially 3 million, a slightly cobwebbed number accurate only as far as January 2013. NCSoft typically shuts down questions about sales, as it did again when I asked, but as the PR was going through the motions of saying, "When we hit another milestone that we've got in our heads...", I interrupted with "5 million?" and with a laugh he replied: "There will be another milestone coming up pretty shortly."</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>Firefall&nbsp;</strong>[I mentioned before that the game will finally enter Open Beta on July 9th. To mark the occasion, Red 5 is planning an impressive live event. They call it Firefall Fest and it includes personalities from all corners fo the gaming world (Day9 will be there too for example!) and it will be streamed on Twitch.] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.firefallthegame.com/firefall-fest'>Firefall Fest Official Page</a>&nbsp;+&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/r5studios'>Twitch Channel</a></span></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Throughout the livestream, our community team will be providing some amazing prizes from our friends at AMD and Razer, as well as some unreleased ingame items that will be available July 9th!<br />&nbsp;<br />Just for logging in during Firefall Fest, you&rsquo;ll receive your very own Red 5 Studios warpaint, to celebrate the open beta launch of Firefall!</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Elder Scrolls Online&nbsp;</strong>[A new wave of beta invites (check your email :o) and a closer look at the making of Kwarma (insectoid creatures quite prevalent in the Elder Scrolls universe)] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2013/07/03/creating-eso-the-kwama'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/cBjegQxcDSg?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Pathfinder Online&nbsp;</strong>[Crafting explained and damn, it's quite the story. Definitely an MMO to keep track of if crafting is your thing.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://goblinworks.com/blog/index.html#20130703'><span style="font-size:10px;">Goblinworks</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>The player-driven economy is at the very heart of the game design for Pathfinder Online. The economy and the drive for territorial control are two sides of the same coin. Why do you need to control territory? To sustain and expand your economic resources. Why do you need to expand your economic resources? To improve and advance the infrastructure of your territory. Working in a feedback loop, these elements create the engine of drama that gives players something interesting to do within the virtual world of Pathfinder Online.<br />A key aspect of the player-driven economy is crafting. Our long-term goal is that virtually every meaningful object in the game will be crafted by player characters. The weapons you fight with, the armor you wear, the tools you use, and the buildings you construct will all be derived from the efforts of player characters.</span></div><br /><div class="quote2"><span>We want people to be able to harvest from the first day they create a character until the last day they play that character. Harvesting is something useful you can always do. You can become more efficient at harvesting, and you may be able to harvest more resources with more character skill, but there is always going to be a way to make some income by harvesting even the lowest-level resources. We want the lowest-level resources to be a major part of the economy so that they are always valuable.<br />&nbsp;<br />We want players to have to make trades to create many of the processed components and finished crafted items. We want to avoid situations where settlements are self-sufficient, able to harvest all the resources they need in the local area. Instead, we want to create a situation where processing and crafting involve resources that come from many different regions, so that trade is required for the economy to function. You will need to consider how to obtain the supplies of resources you need, and factor that into your choices about war and peace.<br />&nbsp;<br />We want players to have the ability to demonstrate mastery of the crafting system by creating items with a wide variety of power levels.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[Details about the Addon system. Not as many as we'd want, but from the short story we're being offered it's clear that Carbine's support for this feature is without restraints.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/bitwise_and_packetdancer_talk_wildstar_ui_add-ons.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/YoGrT.png" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="color:#808080;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em class='bbc'>Wildstar's first Addon</em></span></span></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Even so, two weeks ago was especially exciting for those of us on the UI team, because we were paid a visit by our very first beta Addon creator. For those of you who have been following WildStar, you know that UI customization/modification is one of the key features that we think is essential to WildStar&rsquo;s success. We are so committed to this philosophy that we are including a fully-featured Addon development tool with every installation of WildStar. The UI engine, called Apollo, and that tool, called Houston, not only allow you to easily create your own Addons to extend WildStar&rsquo;s UI, but it also gives players full access to all of the Carbine-authored source code, and even allows players to completely replace our UI with their own.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides / Tips / Giveaways</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Age of Wushu&nbsp;</strong>[It may not be the best MMO, but Age of Wushu really feels different and it definitely has its own unique style. For example, in what other MMO would a guide to parkour be relevant or possible?] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/03/the-art-of-wushu-exploring-china-with-true-parkour/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Flying is governed by Flying Skill points, which most people colloquially refer to as the "flight meter." This meter has a maximum base value of 150 points and regenerates based on how much is remaining. You recover ten points per five seconds if it is above 100, five points if it is between 51 and 100, and two points if it is below 50. For maximum efficiency, you want to keep it between 101 and 140 while you're traveling.<br />&nbsp;<br />Flying skills consume differing amounts of meter. Double jumping consumes seven points, airdashing consumes 15, triple jumping 10, and sliding (Wild Goose Flying Skill) 13. Wall running consumes a small amount at set intervals while it's active.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gIp7vZuYzoA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C1NCfKz1K7I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Firefall Preview: The Miracle Patch?&nbsp;</strong>[FF has been through so many iterations, it's hard to believe that one more will make it completely right, but according to the author, the game is definitely on the right path and all the fixes and improvements Red 5 has ready for the debut of the Open Beta will make the game a solid option for any player] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/566/feature/7554/The-Miracle-Patch.html/page/1'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMORPGcom</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>The New User Experience</strong><br />&nbsp;<br />One of Firefall&rsquo;s biggest hurdles is that, despite being a traditionally-controlled shooter, everything else about this MMO is different from other games in its chosen genre.&nbsp; Everything from progression to the crafting, the mission system to unlocking regions of the map... it&rsquo;s all done a bit different than anyone is used to.&nbsp; And throughout the several years I&rsquo;ve been participating in Firefall&rsquo;s beta, I&rsquo;ve watched its tutorial go from one end of the spectrum to the other.&nbsp; Finally, just a couple of weeks before its big &ldquo;launch&rdquo;, the team&rsquo;s nailed the art of easing players into the game.&nbsp; I&rsquo;d highly suggest starting anew if you&rsquo;ve been away for awhile, because so much has changed in recent months.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>What Makes A Game An MMO?</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[A very good question, with a decent answer provided by the author. He also applies the definition to the 3 console MMOs that have made a big splash at E3 this year] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://agegaming.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/what-make-a-game-an-mmo/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Age's Gaming</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Destiny: It&rsquo;s been called an MMO from the beginning and it definitely is one. The Borderlands/Halo type of world looks insanely vast. You can join people to take on bases and other fun objectives. Destiny hands down gets the verdict of legit MMO from me.</span></div><br />&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Link Twitch to your Steam account&nbsp;</strong>[DOTA2 will probably get a boost in the numbers of viewers after this, just as Call of Duty got thanks to the connection with XBOX. Anyway, this is a really important move for Twitch, maybe the biggest one yet. Steam is THE place for PC Gamers and bringing Twitch there I'm sure will prove as a huge milestone.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://blog.twitch.tv/2013/07/link-twitch-to-your-steam-account/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Twitch Blog</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>This will come as great news to Dota 2 fans as this will allow you to be eligible for tournament item drops while watching Twitch streams, so long as you own the ticket for that event. No longer will you have to to choose between watching events on either DotaTV or Twitch, and risk missing out on your in-game rewards.</span></div><br />&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> GOG.com -&nbsp;</strong><strong>#NoDRM SUMMER SALE FINALE</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[I've mentioned it before but I will do it again now, because it's the final day and there are some seriously awesome deals there.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://gog.com'><span style="font-size:10px;">GOG</span></a></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/gog4.png" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/gog5.png" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p>&nbsp;<br /><i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7226939.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7226939/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />&nbsp;<br /><strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/massivelytv'>MassivelyTV</a>&nbsp;- The official channel of the popular MMO blog. I don't really like the way they're doing the streams (rigid one hour episode and each time I tune in they're just leveling low level chars), but they do go through many different MMOs, so it's a good channel for discovering new games.<br />&nbsp;<br /><strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/126-the-repopulation-mt-sci-fi-sandbox-3-factions-plenty-non-combat-activities/'><span style="font-size:12px;">The Repopulation %5BMT%5D - sci-fi sandbox, 3 factions, plenty non-combat activities</span></a><br /></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/WD-tMLY8gQg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Thu, 04 Jul 2013 15:53:48 +0000fc221309746013ac554571fbd180e1c8http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-04072013-guild-wars-2-firefall-wildstar-twitch-more-r81http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/a-zBYOlJZBM/mmo-round-up-03072013-wurm-guild-wars-2-firefall-outcast-more-r80
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wurm Online&nbsp;</strong>[Dev Diary with some of the lead designers of the game. They talk about the recent 1.1 patch that contained performance improvements, new and shinier graphics, new monsters and fences! <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/D.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> They may not put much effort into marketing and hype, but make no mistake: Wurm is a unique MMO in many, many ways. For example, here's a comment I found on Massively that gives you a hint of how much freedom and possibilities you can find in it.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/02/wurm-online-releases-first-video-dev-diary-for-version-1-1/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>This is the only game where I found a cave full of gold, mined for a while, then logged back in to find myself trapped in a caved-in goldmine. I then succeeded in digging myself out and getting lost in a forest where I was devoured by ravenous spiders. This all while people rode horses by standing on top of them. I ended up putting the game down because I didn't have enough time to really enjoy settling down with my shack and garden.</span></div></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/FmCFaIQNTKs?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Age of Wushu (NA)&nbsp;</strong>[The release date for its first expansion, Legends of Mount Hua, has been pushed back a bit and is now set to August 8. Check the link for all the features that will be debuting with this new expansion, or watch the trailer below.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.ageofwushu.com/news/view/161'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/3DKfeWhVNlo?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> CCP&nbsp;</strong>[Interview with the company's CEO and with their new Product Development lead, Sean Decker. Coming from EA, he created quite the commotion in the EVE community, so I guess they felt the need to clarify some issues, like EVE's business model for example.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/02/ccps-sean-decker-and-hilmar-petursson-on-the-future-of-eve-dus/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Sean is to be the head of product development across all of CCP's games, not just the free-to-play titles, but I wouldn't worry about EVE going free to play any time soon. "I don't think &#91;free-to-play] is the be all and end all business model," Sean told me, adding that he understands that the subscription model better fits some games.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Hilmar assured me that the plan for EVE is still the same plan that was discussed at Fanfest and that fans really latched onto. He promised that nobody will be "making any big kneejerk changes to EVE" and that CCP as a company won't forget the lessons it has learned over the past few years. CCP is currently looking at options that let players "customise the game experience" without upsetting game balance. Options like ship paintjobs are still on the table, but Hilmar explained that the focus right now is on more ideas along the same lines as the dual character training option recently released in EVE's Odyssey expansion.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>This year's EVE Online Fanfest included the reveal of a brand-new virtual reality dogfighter for the Oculus Rift named EVE-VR, which fans went absolutely nuts over. When asked whether this will be turned into a retail product, Hilmar confirmed that it will be one of the games under Sean's new remit, but he clarified, "Right now there are no specific plans." He added an optimistic note that CCP "took &#91;EVE-VR] to Fanfest and E3 and the world is screaming for it."<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Hilmar went on to reveal that CCP's plans to infiltrate the wide world of mobile gaming are well underway. Former EVE producer Jon Lander has taken on the task of managing the company's mobile offerings, and this year will be mostly spent preparing for next year's full-scale app development. The first apps to be released will be "cohort apps to the EVE universe," explained Hilmar, describing them as companion apps to enhance the game experience.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> TERA&nbsp;</strong>[interview with Patrick Sun about the new Corsairs' Stronghold battleground.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32661'><span style="font-size:10px;">ZAM</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Though the Stronghold is the most eye-catching aspect of the patch, it also lays the groundwork for the Alliance system. What do you think it will bring to the game for players?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The Stronghold patch brings a ton of changes to players, perhaps the biggest set of any patch to date.&nbsp; It contains a lot of class balances players have been asking for as well as some changes to leveling and dungeons.&nbsp; The Alliance system will come into play in an update later this summer, and it&rsquo;s really going to evolve the political system in an awesome way.&nbsp; Your objectives as a player will change, even if you&rsquo;re not in a dungeon or battleground.&nbsp; It&rsquo;ll give you something to fight for and defend at all times, and I think the players will dig it.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Firefall&nbsp;</strong>[Trailer showcasing the newest instance added to the game, Blackwater Anomaly. P.S. The game is FINALLY going into Open Beta on July 9th.]</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/iZ92YKST-C4?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[exclusive interview with &nbsp;Senior PvP Systems Designer Jen Gordy] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://wildstaronline.de/threads/exklusives-interview-mit-jen-gordy.4551/#post-16514'><span style="font-size:10px;">WildstarOnline.de</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>3. As the appointed &bdquo;Queen of WildStar PvP&ldquo;, what do you like most about PvP?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
My favorite aspects of PvP:<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>Getting a friend or group of friends to strategize with you to take down the enemy or change the tide of a battleground.</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p>The adrenaline rushes as I&rsquo;m playing in a shared zone on the PvP ruleset server: avoiding large crowds, getting jumped, or picking fights.</p>
<p></span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>11. Will players be required to do a little PvP in order to get certain resources needed for special epic gear that can be crafted (e.g. certain ore from a PvP zone)?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
There are PvP specific crafting ingredients. Players will find these in loot bags (rewards for public events in the map), vendors, and through salvaging PvP gear.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>14. Will the &bdquo;Holy Trinity&ldquo; play a crucial role in 3vs3 matches?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Through all of our arena playtesting, in beta and internally, I have seen many different variations of team makeup. Because you can choose your ability loadout before the match, a team that consisted of a Tank, Healer, and DPS in one match, may be a Healer and 2 DPS on the next. During testing, I&rsquo;ve seen successful DPS trios, Tank trios, 2 Healer + DPS, 1 Healer + 2 Tank.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Runescape 3&nbsp;</strong>[Release date set for 22 July! Check the link for all the new stuff that this version will bring.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://services.runescape.com/m=news/runescape-3-arrives-july-22nd-2013'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>We can also finally reveal the centrepiece content for RuneScape 3: the Battle of Lumbridge. This will be a world event of epic scale where your decisions and actions will forever shape the story of Gielinor. The future of RuneScape is in your hands.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides / Tips / Giveaways</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> MU Rebirth&nbsp;</strong>[Closed Beta Keys Giveaway - 100ish keys left!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://contest.mmosite.com/index.php/activity/sendkey/mu_rebirth_free_closed_beta_key_giveaway_event'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMOSITE</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Closed beta will begin after maintenance on Wednesday, July 3 at approximately 7pm (Global Server Time).</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Elder Scrolls Online&nbsp;</strong>[Race Guide for the Aldmeri Dominion faction] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.tentonhammer.com/eso/race-guides/aldmeri-dominion?'><span style="font-size:10px;">TenTonHammer</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The Aldmeri Dominion was formed when word came down that human supporters of Molag Bal had taken control of Imperial City in Cyrodiil. Queen Ayrenn, the High Elf ruler, built the Aldmeri Dominion with the Wood Elves, who live in the Valenwood just northeast of the Summerset Isles, and the Khajiit, whom she aided during the recent Knahaten Flu outbreak that devastated the Khajiit homeland of Elsweyr.<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xa79Hrm8FAw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fON9xOP2Ipg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/f32190a4f6dd4e7bd9e41003a63c9089/tumblr_mpb624qqBN1rwchvjo1_400.gif" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>What happened to Guild Wars 2 on console?</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[an interesting speculation article, coupled with quotes from ArenaNet and with the conclusion that GW2 might still have a console future, thanks to the arrival of the next-gen hardware and policies.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-01-what-happened-to-guild-wars-2-on-console'><span style="font-size:10px;">Eurogamer</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"Development for console was something that we did experiment with and try and see &#91;if it would work]," lead content designer Mike Zadorojny told me last week.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"But we were always committed to making sure that we were PC platform first. And especially as we move towards this living world strategy where we're trying to release content as fast as we are - trying to do that on a console is extremely difficult."<br />
&nbsp;<br />
In other words, the infamous red tape surrounding the consoles' online networks got in the way. ArenaNet wouldn't have the freedom to update and patch its online world at will, and that's what put ArenaNet off. "Yes," nodded Zadorojny.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Gaming as heritage: why I&rsquo;m teaching my son to use a mouse and keyboard</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[awesome article describing the experience of a father teaching his left-handed son to shoot stuff in Unreal Tournament, even if I don't really enjoy that it implies the mouse + keyboard pair is of the past.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/gaming-as-heritage-why-im-teaching-my-son-to-use-a-mouse-and-keyboard'><span style="font-size:10px;">Penny Arcade Report</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>I don&rsquo;t really care if my kids believe in God, or which god they believe in. I just hope they have some kind of belief system that gives them strength. I don&rsquo;t really care if they grow up to like men or women, although a selfish part of me hopes they&rsquo;re straight, just so their path in life is easier than what I&rsquo;ve seen in my friends who grew up liking the same gender. But at the end of the day I just hope they find someone to love.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Most of what they do is negotiable, but not this. They need to know how to use a mouse and keyboard. </span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Reflecting on The Secret World's first year</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[a comprehensive look at the game's first year of life. One of the most under-rated MMOs in my opinion, at least when compared with other recent titles.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/02/chaos-theory-reflecting-on-the-secret-worlds-first-year/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/secret%20world2.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>For all its flaws, the game still struggles with (PvP has always had a tough life in TSW, and there are folks who are rabid in their desire for more endgame), The Secret World has earned its loyal fanbase. Not only does it offer something different with the setting (like the investigation and sabotage missions), but it invites the community to become a part of the world. Just look at the music contest that resulted in player music being incorporated in the game. And remember when Funcom granted rewards to every player when an exploit skewed results of an in-game contest? The development team may be small, but it does seem focused on giving the players a worthwhile experience.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">MMO Design</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Designing An Awesome Video Game</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[a small template of must-have features if you want your game to be competitive on todays's gaming scene] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JamesMarsden/20130629/195334/Designing_An_Awesome_Videogame.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Good Game Essential Checklist</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
This list is in order of importance. Each aspect is listed here briefly, and discussed in detail afterward.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
1. Responsive Controls Controls have to be close to perfect, if not perfect.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
2. Watertight Concept The game has to make sense throughout.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
3. Appropriate Learning Curve The game has to challenge players in a way that&rsquo;s fun throughout.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
4. Positive Feedback & Reward Good games are full of positive feedback for the player.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
5. Frictionless User Interface The UI has to be streamlined to keep the player engaged.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
6. Consistent Audio & Visual Style The audiovisual style of the game should be consistent throughout.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Outcast is set to make a comeback!&nbsp;</strong>[Truly a game before its time. I remember being absolutely amazed by it when I played it, way back in the stone age of PC games. It's silly to expect the same thing from this potential sequel, but it's definitely a franchise that merits a resurrection.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/03/the-57th-best-news-of-all-time-outcast-to-return/'><span style="font-size:10px;">RPS</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/outcast-2.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>YouTube Reacts to E3 2013</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[ZOMG SO MCUH XBONE BIAS!!!!]</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/468qT640YRk?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7224398.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7224398/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.</p>
<br />
<br />
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/egjd'>EG.Jaedong</a>&nbsp;- The BroodWar legend, arguably the best zerg that ever played Starcraft, has started streaming his games on a regular basis. If he doesn't make you dizzy from how quick he controls the screen, then it's definitely a must-watch!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/430-no-blizzard-all-stars-in-2013-impact-on-blizzcon-and-titan/'>No Blizzard All-Stars in 2013 - Impact on Blizzcon and Titan</a></p>
<p></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/a-zBYOlJZBM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:13:56 +0000045117b0e0a11a242b9765e79cbf113fhttp://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-03072013-wurm-guild-wars-2-firefall-outcast-more-r80http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/T6LNPT8xTSs/mmo-round-up-02072013-the-repopulation-wow-guild-wars-2-more-r79
<!-- isHtml:1 --><!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Repopulation&nbsp;</strong>[The monthly update is here and as always, it's a long one! The more I read about this game the more I see it as potentially one of the purest sandboxes we've had the chance to play so far. EVE without spaceships basically, but you also can't call it an EVE clone, as it has many unique features. ] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.therepopulation.com/index.php/news/107-end-of-june-2013-update'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/repopulation2.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>June is in the books, and as you probably expected, things continue to move along. We introduced the Work Order system this month, which is similar to a reverse auction. Players can Request certain work orders are filled, specifying the amount they want to spend, along the with the grade, quantity and items they need created. Crafters can then step in and fulfill those orders if they accept that price.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>We also put a lot of work into the FPR &#91;one of the factions] side of things this month, in preparation for reintroducing Freedomtown soon in testing. We plan on unveiling new information on PvP and Sieges in the coming weeks, and the FPR content paves the way for us to begin testing those features.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Other improvements include new cinematic features, moving platforms, item stacking changes, a command alias system, and ability based goals for missions.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> CCP&nbsp;</strong>[EA executive joins CCP as Senior Vice President for Product Development. Definitely not a PR move, that's for sure.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/27977/EA-Veteran-Joins-CCP'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMORPG.com</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Prior to his time leading EA’s “Play4Free” group, Decker served as vice president and general manager at DICE, where he oversaw the Battlefield and Mirror’s Edge franchises, and at EA’s Los Angeles studio, where he directed the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer franchises.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Defiance&nbsp;</strong>[The Volge are on the offensive again in the world of Defiance, at least for the first week of July and it seems to be an event thoroughly enjoyed by the players, as killing them usually requires teamwork] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://community.defiance.com/en/2013/07/01/defiance-volge-incursion/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Defiance Official Website</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/defiance%20volge.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><em>Get the full details on this weeks live Volge content below. Content will be live at 12pm PT</em><br />
<strong>Pursuit:</strong><br />
Volge Examination<br />
- Kill a Trooper<br />
- Kill a Bomber<br />
- Kill a Viscera<br />
- Complete 5 Volge emergencies</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> World of Warcraft&nbsp;</strong>[Patch 5.4 Highlights] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/features/patch-54-preview'><span style="font-size:10px;">TenTonHammer</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/wow54.jpg" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Class Changes</strong><br />
...<br />
Just a few of note so far are:<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Several classes get new abilities, such as Death Knights getting a new passive that boots crit every time they parry or dodge and Paladins being able to fear players with the new "Evil is a Point of View" talent.<br />
Several classes are having talents become base line abilities and new talents moving into their place.<br />
Monks get a rest from change and are relatively stable.<br />
Warriors get even more self healing!</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[Interview with Chris Whiteside, Design Director at ArenaNet, about Guild Wars 2's Living World.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32655'><span style="font-size:10px;">ZAM</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The key goal was to try to update the game as much as possible. ArenaNet soon realized that doing this was highly complex, especially the logistics of creating and patching the game so frequently.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Another concern with moving to content patches every two weeks was burning out and not having the time for the team to be creative. To solve this ANet expanded the living world team to include four separate teams that rotate content releases. Now, it isn’t ANet rushing content out in two weeks, but each team having months to create quality content.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Although he couldn’t talk much about expansions, he did have one little bomb to drop. He mentioned that there are the expectations of what an expansion adds with content, features and systems. Instead of having one massive drop of all this new content as is seen in every other MMO, ArenaNet might release their first expansion over the course of a month folded into the living world releases. The living world wouldn’t be stopping around an expansion but, instead, the living world releases would be the expansion itself.<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EVE Online&nbsp;</strong>[New event for the month of July, encouraging players to explore the vast universe and take pictures of certain key locations. In any other MMOs this would be grindy and boring, but in EVE it will probably lead to some fantastic battles and intrigues, not to mention that exploring in this game really gets close to the real meaning of the word.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/a-new-live-event-for-july'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Dev Blog</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/eve.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>In an effort to revitalize study and exploration throughout New Eden, the Sanctuary, the scientific wing of the Sisters of EVE, have asked all capsuleers to help them catalog the historic and interesting sights throughout the cluster. Over the coming weeks, the Sanctuary will release three lists of 10 locations each and ask capsuleers to travel to these locations and take verified, new pictures of them. In return for the effort, the Sanctuary is offering rewards to anyone who completes at least one list, as well as a grand prize to one lucky pilot. Even the other branches of the Sisters have thrown in some prizes, saying “It'll be nice to have the capsuleers focused on something other than explosions for a while.”</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Division&nbsp;</strong>[they're really doing their best to not call it an MMO. I wonder if it's because of the bad rep of the term or because it really isn't as close to the genre as we've been led to believe during E3. Anyway, some really dodgy answers offered, but interesting nonetheless.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://blog.ubi.com/the-division-community-interview-e3-2013/'>Ubisoft Blog</a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/the%20division.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>What is the online aspect of the game? Is it small teams doing objectives? Vs matches? MMO?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
The Division is an online, open world RPG experience where exploration, objectives and player progression are all essential. You can team up with a group of friends in co-op and jump in and jump out at any time. In certain areas, you can also seamlessly engage in PvP and experience suspenseful scenarios where danger can come from anywhere and anyone.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>Will The Division have open world PVP?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Player vs. Player combat will play a very big role in our game. The choices you make as a Division agent can either spur a recovery or plunge the city further into chaos. The people you meet in certain areas of the game can either be your best friends or your worst enemies. So you’ll constantly be making decisions that will impact the world around you.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Elder Scrolls Online&nbsp;</strong>[A look at everything connected to the game's dungeons: player roles (yes, the holy trinity is strong in this one, although players have more flexible roles), monster behavior and general gameplay] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2013/07/01/inside-eso-dungeons'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>or example, let’s say your group’s healer goes down during a boss battle. In many games, it would be impossible to recover at this point. However, you were prepared for just such a situation! You swap your two-handed sword out right in the middle of combat for a restoration staff, which activates your second hotbar (where you’ve cleverly slotted some healing abilities). Now, you can keep the party going.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Monster Hunter Online&nbsp;</strong>[A summary of the upcoming game, including 7 features that let's say makes it stand-out. It definitely has the feel of a very action oriented MMO.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://2p.com/806358_1/Monster-Hunter-Online-Hands-On7-Features-Pillaring-the-Game.htm'><span style="font-size:10px;">2P</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/MGwcRfummxM?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Tencent Games, one of the biggest game companies in China announced this April that they would team up with Capcom to develop Monster Hunter Online (MHO), a free-to-play MMORPG set in the Monster Hunter universe. The game is aimed at the international market, not just China. Moreover, it runs on CryEngine 3 and has entered closed beta test on June 28.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>1. No Class Restrictions. Weapons are classes.<br />
2.You can defeat the boss "part by part".<br />
3. Monsters will run away.<br />
4. You can make use of the environment.<br />
5. You have to sharpen your weapon during a combat.<br />
6. Character's attributes are not related to their levels.<br />
7. You only have to deal with the boss monster.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[E3 dev interviews continue to pop-up on the interwebs. This one is with the Creative Lead and Co-Director, Matt Mocarski.]</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/1oJe1bvW0QI?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q9LwQ-kCzjk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R_lkf-rshoc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> We need to pay more for niche games.&nbsp;</strong>[Definitely agree, especially since this usually means encouraging games taht actually bring something new to their genre.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://tobolds.blogspot.ro/2013/07/we-need-to-pay-more-for-niche-titles.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">Tobold</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>I very much welcome niche games, although obviously not all niches are for me. But I realize that due to economies of scale a niche game costs more per player to keep running. And as a consequence I as a player of a niche game need to be willing to pay more for it than for a mass market game.&nbsp;</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Star Trek's Online&nbsp;</strong>[screenshots and impressions from the game's latest event, Lohlunat Festival] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://mmogamerchick.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/screenshots-of-the-day-parasailing-is-for-chumps-jet-packs-are-the-way-to-go/'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMO Gamer Chick</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/floater.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">MMO Design</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Keeping players engaged</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[a short look at most of the techniques available to devs in their fight to keep us playing their game.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JordanGeorgiev/20130623/194884/Keeping_players_engaged.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Procedural content generation. A good and economic way of filling your world with content. It could be used by itself or in conjunction with any other method. If used correctly it could greatly enhance your game. If used poorly on the other hand it will eventually annoy and irritate the player. An awesome example of this is the Elite mob system in Diablo. The occasional group of elites breaks up the monotonous process of eradicating or hordes of weak enemies and the different combinations of monster affixes provide a great variation to the gameplay.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>MLG Anaheim hosts over 21,000 spectators</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[Online viewership was probably down though year over year, hence why no details on this have been released yet] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32650'><span style="font-size:10px;">ZAM</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Hosting tournaments across the three main titles StarCraft II, League of Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, with a collective $105,000 in prizes up for grabs, MLG put on a show to remember. With world class competitors from across the globe, including stars from other sports such as Dwight Howard (Los Angeles Lakers), Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys), Ty Lawson (Denver Nuggets) and DeJuan Blair (San Antonio Spurs).</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Waling Dead: 400 Days&nbsp;</strong>[Launch Trailer. The DLC will come out this week, depending on the platform. It will come to PC on July 3rd.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://example.com'><span style="font-size:10px;">link</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/R47-A5_taro?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7221701.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7221701/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/rabbitbong'>Yoni</a>&nbsp;- World of Warcraft silliness.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/268-funny-awesome-videos/'>Funny / Awesome Videos.</a><br /></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/T6LNPT8xTSs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:36:19 +00008f53295a73878494e9bc8dd6c3c7104fhttp://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-02072013-the-repopulation-wow-guild-wars-2-more-r79http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/NYByTh00f98/mmo-round-up-01072013-swtor-planetside-2-archeage-eve-standing-more-r78
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Star Wars: The Old Republic&nbsp;</strong>[an Ewook named Treek will be the next companion that will be available to players, coming with Update 2.3. Visit the link for many more details on the little fluffy fluffball.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://dulfy.net/2013/06/28/swtor-new-ewok-companion-treek/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Dulfy</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/szGa6h4A76k?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>You will need to have 1 million credits for each character you wish to unlock this companion on and legacy level 40 to purchase a mercenary contract that will unlock this new companion. Go to Cartel Bazaar on the south end of the fleet (north end for Republic) once Patch 2.3 arrives on live servers. You will see&nbsp; a droid that sells you a mercenary contract for 1 mil credits (requires legacy level 40) and using it will bring up a short conversation where you are introduced to Treek.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Planetside 2&nbsp;</strong>[Battle Islands coming soon to the MMO Shooter - isolated zones, designed for battle between teams of 48 players and matchmaking done based on a ranking system. It's probably their push for a more controlled competition, maybe even enough to be a viable eSport. First Battle Island will be Nexus and you can see a preview of it below.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/01/soe-drop-pods-two-new-battleground-videos-into-the-planetside-2/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/xK0cNWyL74A?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Secret World&nbsp;</strong>[Funcom's MMO will finish its first year tomorrow and to celebrate this the team is looking to launch a special event on July 3rd, Guardians of Gaia] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/game_director_letter_june_2013'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Site</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/secret%20world.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>From July 3rd, the Guardians of Gaia will be awakening in areas all across the game. These massive creatures, formed of the primal elements, are the second line of defense for the planet against the strange infection known only as the Filth.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Such powerful creatures can only be brought down by banding together with others and lucky players will be able to capture a portion of their essence - a earn a Guardian of their very own.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Throughout the event, we will be offering a 30% discount across almost everything in the store and every day we will provide a different bonus to anybody who logs in - Double Experience, Double Ability Points and Double Skill Points.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Age of Conan&nbsp;</strong>[Game Director Letter - server merges (+1 for not avoiding the term, like some other :cough: Blizzard :cough: developers), solving the loot issues (new items are not interesting enough apparently), and a hint that Achievements might be on the horizon.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.ageofconan.com/news/game_director_letter_june_2013'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Website</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>As soon as we have available animation resources, we will be finishing up The Slithering Chaos. In addition Unchained PvP, Place of Cetriss and a new minigame are still being looked at for after the summer.&nbsp; Beyond that, the Tradeskill revamp still requires a lot of work from our systems team, who are also on the tap for the new loot setup and new AA's.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> ArcheAge&nbsp;</strong>[Holy mother of all reviews! If you're curious about ArcheAge, then this is definitely the go-to article about. Damn impressive!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://archeagesource.com/topic/1804-56kphone-warningpersonal-review-what-you-should-know-about-archeage/'><span style="font-size:10px;">ArcheAge Source forums</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>To give you some perspective about the game, let me tell you about what ArcheAge is about.<br />
All of this, as well as the whole review, is merely my opinion and can always change as the game or my information on different topics change. Generally, ArcheAge is your typical MMORPG. You start the game, level up as you do quests, kill monsters and strengthen your character. You team up with friends and meet new enemies as you progress. And then you chill out in the cities and craft new stuff for you and your group. There is nothing really special about that.<br />
But in every gameplay aspect there's a little more depth than in your usual MMO. You level up through various means: crafting, leveling and everything that is fun. Even while exploring you still get further in a way, even if it's just knowledge. You also don't just upgrade your character just as everyone else, you get to choose out of 10 different classtrees, or schools, and combine them to make your own class. With a total of 120 combinations, not all of them make sense of course, you really have to think what you like best. And even then, with 23 skill points to spend and way more skills available, once you've chosen a combination of schools you still have to choose which skills to use. </span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides / Tips / Giveaways</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EVE Online&nbsp;</strong>[A guide to roles in fleet PvP] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/30/eve-evolved-a-guide-to-roles-in-fleet-pvp/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Roles for new players</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
PvP in most MMOs involves a maximum of a few dozen players smashing each other to bits without any real assigned roles or permanent consequences. EVE obviously differs in consequence and scale, but more importantly, ships and their captains tend to fulfil very specific roles with specialised requirements. The roles of Scout, Damage Dealer, and Tackler are all ideal for new players and require little more than a few weeks of skill training and some instruction.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>Fighting above your weight category</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
No fleet engages a target it doesn't think it can beat, by you can't judge a group solely on numbers and class of ship. Electronic warfare and logistics can act as force multipliers for any fleet by removing key enemy ships from the field or effectively nullifying their damage output. Roles like the Logistics pilot and Electronic Warfare specialist will benefit greatly from a few months of skill training and can be extremely rewarding for new players to train into.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/76UF2gnLKho" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mhI-tom-s_4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ecf-I6osFJs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Update on the Mom-Mage</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[pretty funny seeing an experience you're worn out of from a newbie's perspective. Reminds me of the good old times.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://treehealsgowoosh.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/update-on-the-mom-mage/'><span style="font-size:10px;">TreeHealsGoWoosh</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>She also really enjoys wandering around Azeroth, though sometimes she wishes there were more places she could go to just look around without having to fight mobs.&nbsp; The first time I got her into Stormwind, she spent over an hour exploring the city.&nbsp; She also found her way to Ironforge via the tram, explored the in-world version of Zul Gurub, figured how to buy her first mount and riding training, and has made her way all over the Eastern Kingdoms.&nbsp; And, you know what?&nbsp; I think that&rsquo;s pretty rad.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s definitely a hell of a lot more coherent than I was when I first started playing.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Don&rsquo;t punish people for grouping</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[It's a problem I've noticed quite often in recent MMOs. In their attempt to make the game solo friendly, they usually make grouping inefficient. Almost all games have bonuses to parties, but they're usually just for bait and don't compensate for the loss of efficiency or other factors that affect group play.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.keenandgraev.com/2013/07/01/punish-people-grouping'><span style="font-size:10px;">Keen and Graev</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>So one thing that really irks me is how players are seemingly punished for grouping up. This is a startling trend that has been going on for years now. A new MMORPG would come out and our friends/community would dive in to play. Keen and I are usually fused at the hip when we play a MMORPG together so we are always grouped up. In pretty much every single game the players who soloed would actually outpace us in leveling. Obviously some people would play more than us but even the people who had similar hours would easily out-level us. Everything we kill usually nets us a rather nasty exp split and even games that have supposed &ldquo;group bonuses&rdquo; don &lsquo;t end up compensating enough at all.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">MMO Design</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Game endings are a moment for honest design</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[Tell that to the poor guys that worked on Mass Effect 3 ^^ Jokes aside though, this seems like really good advice for game devs and also players should learn to appreciate it when it happens, even if it's sometimes a hit and miss.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/195318/Game_endings_are_a_moment_for_honest_design.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>More than half of your players are not going to finish. You know that going in, so think of it as a design constraint! What does that mean to you?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>First:</strong>&nbsp;The deeper into your game your content is, the more likely it is that the players that are still with you have been having a good time. They're in. They've bought it. You have earned a certain amount of faith capital with them, and they probably want to see what else you've got up your sleeve.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Second:</strong>&nbsp;Because your producers and various high-mucky-mucks have seen the finishing stats for other games, they know that dev time spent in detailed iteration on your ending is effort going to a small subset of players. They will prioritize the team's time accordingly. They will thus be more likely, whether through disinterest or lack of time, to let your crazy idea for the end slip through the cracks.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Xbox chief Don Mattrick leaving Microsoft - report</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[Reportedly going over to Zynga. A perfect match if you ask me! :D ] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-01-xbox-chief-don-mattrick-leaving-microsoft-report'><span style="font-size:10px;">GamesIndustry</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Although the news is not yet official, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD is reporting that Don Mattrick, Microsoft's head of the Interactive Entertainment Business, is on his way out. Citing "multiple sources close to the situation," AllThingsD says that Mattrick is close to joining social games firm Zynga.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>The Future of Diablo 3 - Fansite Summit Mega-Report</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[there's really not much to add. Flux has done an awesome job describing every little detail from the event] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/the-future-of-diablo-3-fansite-summit-mega-report'><span style="font-size:10px;">IncGamers</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Here&rsquo;s a quick summary of the key facts, plus some predictions based on the current plans.&nbsp;</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Fact #1: There will not be any Diablo 3 content patches before Blizzcon. When news of this broke a couple of weeks ago it was greeted with rage, but it&rsquo;s just how it is. Like it or don&rsquo;t. If you&rsquo;re displeased with the current game and all you want from Diablo 3 is MOAR new game content, and you do not care about dev interviews, theorycrafting, insight into the process, concept art, etc&hellip; you should probably save yourself some public tantrums by taking a break and focusing your attention on other things until say&hellip; November-ish.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Fact #2: Blizzard is committed to doing all they can to keep the community engaged, despite the lack of new game content. That&rsquo;s largely what this Fan Site Summit was about, as they wanted direct conversation with members of the community about how they could better support us and join us in providing you fans with interesting Diablo 3 stuff, in the immediate future and long term.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Fact #3: We will see much more communication and info from the CMs and the devs over the next few months than we&rsquo;ve seen previously, and this includes numerous upcoming interviews with developers (those questions you guys submitted will not be going to waste), special themed in-game promotional events, and much more.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>The Standing Desk Challenge</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[It's definitely worth a try, especially if you're spending most of your time at the PC. And since you're reading this, you probably are. Day 1 is today, out of the 28 days of transition to a standing desk. Go for it!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://deskhacks.com/'><span style="font-size:10px;">DeskHacks</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Here&rsquo;s your assignment. Ready?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Stand for 12 minutes.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
No more, no less.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Seems easy, right? What about the grueling, soul-crushing, arch-flattening first days you&rsquo;ve heard about?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
One oft-repeated piece of advice that many standing desk vets share is this: Don&rsquo;t do the switch cold turkey. Ease into it gradually, building up strength and endurance in your feet and legs.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7218313.js"></script>
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<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/nl_kripp'>Kripparrian</a>&nbsp;- One of the few really hardcore streamers. Streams each day for 8-10 hours. He was in a top 10 WoW guild, then he switched to Diablo 3 where he got tons of World firsts (including first HC Inferno Diablo kill) and now he's been playing Path of Exile, min-maxing and winning races all the way.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/488-2013-wcs-season-2/'>WCS Season 2</a><br /></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/NYByTh00f98" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:11:29 +00008f85517967795eeef66c225f7883bdcbhttp://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-01072013-swtor-planetside-2-archeage-eve-standing-more-r78http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/jd9HY_B8SVs/mmo-round-up-30062013-destiny-swtor-darkfall-tic-tac-toe-more-r77
<!-- isHtml:1 --><!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Final Fantasy XI&nbsp;</strong>[The still very popular and profitable 10+ years old MMO is on track for receiving two new updates this summer, one in July and one in August.] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/10563/detail.html'>Official Site</a></span></p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/ff11.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p><div class="quote2"><span>The July version update with usher in another chapter in Seekers of Adoulin upon its light breezes, along with the Mog Garden system and access to the Celennia Memorial Library. Adventurers raring to mash their maces into fresh flesh and wave their wands at weighty foes can enjoy their encounters with two new Naakuals, and those who pine for frontiers of a more internal sort can undertake the geomancer and rune fencer limit break quests.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>The dog days of August should heat up even further with a continuation of the Seekers of Adoulin saga. Should your main weapon hand start to itch in excitement, sate its thirst for blood by crossing into new extra-dimensional skirmishes!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Geomancers and rune fencers will also get the opportunity to embark upon quests in search of artifact equipment. Let us not forget the addition of Monstrosity, which will provide for all your shapeshifting needs. As a last burst of air from the bellows, the coalitions will be dispensing new outfits to particularly devoted pioneers...for a bit of bayld.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Star Wars: The Old Republic&nbsp;</strong>[Turns out you don't have to be popular or profitable to get some summer updates. ^^ Update 2.3 for SW:TOR is ready for testing! Check the link for full patch notes and also for closer looks on each new feature.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.darthhater.com/articles/feature/24929-game-update-2-3-titans-of-industry-pts-patch-notes'><span style="font-size:10px;">Darth Hater</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>CZ-198, a new Level 55 Daily mission area, is now available!</strong>&nbsp;CZ-198 is a small, private moon where Czerka Corporation’s most secret and dangerous data, research and technology is stored. The facility has recently entered an emergency security lockdown, and both the Empire and the Republic have descended on the moon in order to seize control. Details under Missions<br />
<strong>New Level 55 Flashpoint:</strong>&nbsp;Czerka Corporate Labs! Infiltrate Czerka’s corporate headquarters on CZ-198 and take down Rasmus Blys, the Czerka scientist responsible for developing the company’s most dangerous weaponry. Details under Flashpoints<br />
...</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> DarkFall&nbsp;</strong>[New content patch - new ships, new crafting skill to make the new ships, changes to AI respawn rates and many other fixes. One of them is probably something you'll only find in Darkfall:] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?374267-Patch-Notes-June-28th'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Forum</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Player Requested : You can now gank using a bow or a staff. (so you don't need to switch weapons)</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Destiny&nbsp;</strong>[New Bungie mail sack! Tons of interesting questions and answers. If not very informing, they're at least very entertaining.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.bungie.net/en-us/News/News?aid=10828'><span style="font-size:10px;">Bungie.net</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>How does Destiny appeal to people who want to play the game completely single player?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
If you want to cut a bright line through Destiny that takes you through the heart of its central story arc, you’ll be well taken care of.&nbsp; Staten and his stable of incredible writers are focused on ensuring Destiny’s narrative is filled with memorable characters, indelible, cinematic moments, and heart-pounding, blockbuster adventures.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>Will Destiny have guns?</strong></span></div></p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1G8zTmX.jpg" /></p><p style="text-align:center;">Tom Gioconda, Engineer</p><p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>Is the constant flood of Destiny questions irritating, since you cannot reveal too much right now?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
Not as irritating as when we couldn’t even tell you the name of the game despite everyone knowing it due to the leaks.<br />
&#91;i]Tom Gioconda, Engineer&#91;/i&#93;</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>I simply wanted to know any form of estimate for the size of the open world, or worlds.</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
We’ve seen a lot of people label Destiny an “open world” game. For the same reasons we’re cautious about all of the “MMO” attribution, we want to be careful here, as well. Destiny is a big, beautiful action game with ongoing adventures that span our solar system. There are worlds to explore, mysteries to uncover, enemy motivations to understand, and long forgotten treasures to unearth. First and foremost, we’re building an action game. Destiny is a First Person Shooter.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EverQuest: Next (SOE Live)&nbsp;</strong>[The complete panel schedule for SOE Live has been released and it looks like Friday, August 2nd, 11AM is when we'll have to forget about everything else and tune in to the EQN reveal!] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32640'>ZAM</a>&nbsp;+&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.soe.com/soelive/lineup.vm'>Full Schedule</a></span></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Those interested in EverQuest Next should make sure to attend the unveiling of the game during the Friday, August 2 morning keynote address. This takes place from 11am-1pm in the celebrity ballroom of the host hotel, Planet Hollywood. Several EverQuest Next panels are peppered throughout the day on Friday, Saturday, and even one on Sunday.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Final Fantasy XIV&nbsp;</strong>[A short but insightful first-look at the FF XIV beta, from a source I've learned to trust.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.keenandgraev.com/2013/06/29/ffxiv-early-beta-impressions'><span style="font-size:10px;">Keen and Graev</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>I love how I have already felt lost.&nbsp; I was trying to find out where a quest wanted me to go, and it took me several minutes to get myself oriented with the map.&nbsp; Not that finding quests is hard once you figure things out, it’s just slightly more effort that I can personally appreciate.&nbsp; Navigating the world has been a lot of fun so far.&nbsp; I’m loving the terrain and environments, and so far the game runs beautifully on my 3.5 year old PC.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides / Tips / Giveaways</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>7 Ways to Instill Life into Your Guild’s Forums</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[And also, you definitely need a random banter + video / pic dump threads. The TF forum wouldn't be the same without the second. ^^] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.worldofmatticus.com/7-ways-to-instill-life-into-your-guilds-forums/'><span style="font-size:10px;">World of Matticus</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Raid Attendance threads<br />
Guild picture thread<br />
Strategies thread<br />
What’s your job title thread<br />
Post your system specs thread<br />
Patch discussion thread<br />
Embedded chat room<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wIKkqa4tZC4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZSxWEh-4FBg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/r8zwwlc_k3M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h8PBH-NA8oQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/mmo%20genre%20choice.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em class='bbc'><span style="color:#808080;">source:&nbsp;</span><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://brookegothamdweller.tumblr.com/image/54114059176'><span style="color:#808080;">The Gotham Dweller</span></a></em></span></p><p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Top 5 Reasons for the Demise of World PvP</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[very good list!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/features/top-10/world-pvp-demise'><span style="font-size:10px;">TenTonHammer</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Back in the days when World of Warcraft was shiny and new, players everywhere took part in a bloody sport called World PvP. This sport could happen almost anywhere in the world, although there were many preferred locations. There were no real rewards for this, except for the glory, the honor, and the thrill of gathering up some companions and going and ganking one of the other faction's cities or towns.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
However, as the game has aged, World PvP has almost died out. Most World of Warcraft veterans will talk fondly of it and occasionally a group of die hard players will gather to assault a city, however, it seems the days of World PvP are numbered.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Battlefield: Boredom</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[You could say that she does not really enjoy the 5.3 daillies. ^^ Does she have a point?] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://treehealsgowoosh.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/battlefield-boredom/'><span style="font-size:10px;">TreeHealsGoWoosh</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>I found that the mobs hit a fresh 90 pretty darn hard, but I stuck with it because the initial questline eventually rewards a pair of 502 boots.&nbsp; In an irony that is not uncommon for WoW in this expansion, the only characters who need the loot provided by this quest (or by the random enchant Kor’kron items) are those who are relatively undergeared; and relatively undergeared characters are the only ones who are going to have difficulty getting through this questline.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Worse still, many of the zone objective actively discourage cooperation.&nbsp; I really like the idea of the commanders and caravans, which remind me somewhat of the rifts and zone invasions in Rift that add a random and exciting element to what might be a slow-moving leveling experience.&nbsp; In that sense, I hope Blizzard will continue to experiment with these zone events in the future – but with a different implementation.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong><span style="color:#0000cd;">Smurfs</span>, or, "Ethical issues caused by tiny blue people."</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[how and why "smurfs" appear and what can games do to reduce this rather dubious player choice] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://outofbetablog.blogspot.ro/2013/06/smurfs-or-ethical-issues-caused-by-tiny.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">Out of Beta</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Eventually the players at the higher end of the Gaussian found, for various reasons, that they occasionally wanted to dive back into the middle. Perhaps they wanted to be able to mingle like celebrities would; unrecognized. Perhaps they DO want those ROFLstomp games again. The reasons are many. And so "Smurf" accounts were born.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The problem is, this practice is essentially circumventing the purpose of these ELO systems; and in its barest state is technically an exploit. </span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Game Design</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Episode Development</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[A step-by-step explanation of how episodic story content is done in Star Trek Online] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=929071'><span style="font-size:10px;">STO Dev Blog</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Step 3: The Pitch</strong><br />
After the pod is told what’s important for a given episode, they are given time to put a pitch together. When building a pitch, the artist and designer talk through the episode bullets and figure out how they’d like to tell that story. They might add side-plots or embellishments, or just stick to the key elements, depending on how difficult they think it will be to convey a given idea.<br />
The pitch itself generally contains maps that detail moment-to-moment gameplay, including critter locations, puzzles and any general things to click, talk to, or fight. The pitch is made to the Leads and Executive Producer and feedback is taken into account. If there are significant changes required, the pod will go back to the drawing board (as much as necessary) and then re-pitch. When everyone is happy with it (as was often the case after the initial pitch), the pod will go off and start working on the whitebox process.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> HL3 + Futurama&nbsp;</strong>[There's been a recent flurry of rumors and speculation that Valve was starting a weird HL3 teasing campaign. As always it ended up being nothing. HL fans, I feel for you and this video perfectly describes what they've been going through. Get ready to weep.]</p><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/Jczk-nF3gHA?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Google Building Android Game Console</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[Just what we need, another console! Right? Also, the article implies that Apple might be looking to get in on the action as well. People will soon be needing bigger living rooms, just to be able to fit all the consoles, because ofc exclusive games will drive many to buy each and every one of them. Or, you know, just get a PC. :D] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689204578571992848684764.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">WSJ</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and wristwatch powered by its Android operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet company seeks to spread the software beyond smartphones and tablets.<br />
...<br />
The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Tic-Tac-Toe-Ception</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[I did not spend 2 hours on this silly game, nope, sure didn't...] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/tic-tac-toe-ception/1676336506'><span style="font-size:10px;">Khan Academy</span></a></p><p><div class="quote2"><span>Tic-tac-toe-ception is a 2-player computer game played on a game board comprising nine tic-tac-toe games set out in nine mini-squares within a 3x3 greater-square.&nbsp; Thus, there are 81 cells, arranged in nine 3x3 mini-squares within a greater square.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Objective:</strong><br />
The objective of this game is to be the first to win three tic-tac-toe games lying in a row, column, or diagonal within the greater-square.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7216251.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7216251/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p><p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/itshafu'>Hafu</a>&nbsp;- Ex WoW and Bloodline Champions pro, now streaming LoL full-time. She's at a high level so expect to see quality games<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/486-video-game-the-movie/'>[video game] - The Movie</a><br />
</div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/jd9HY_B8SVs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sun, 30 Jun 2013 11:01:29 +000096da2f590cd7246bbde0051047b0d6f7http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-30062013-destiny-swtor-darkfall-tic-tac-toe-more-r77http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/WTF1BmSem7c/mmo-round-up-28062013-dust-514-planetside-2-pathfinder-tdf-wut-more-r76
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Dust514&nbsp;</strong>[Uprising 1.2 (details below and in the link) coming to the PS3 MMShooter and CCP also gave some details on what they have planned in the next 6 months - faster updates, core improvements (aiming, vehicle handling, controls), both being heavily requested by the playerbase.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://dust514.com/news/2013/06/uprising-1.2-and-beyond/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Site</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/dustbanner2.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The biggest thing we&rsquo;re adding in Uprising 1.2 is a brand new dropsuit role: the Commando. Only Commando dropsuits let you equip two light weapons such as Swarm Launchers and Assault Rifles, offering extreme versatility at the cost of some punch.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>We are expanding the Planetary Conquest experience to let corporation officers remove teammates from Conquest battles in the war barge, and districts are no longer locked once conquered by a new owner. We&rsquo;ve also enabled ISK transfers between characters, and from corporation wallets to any player or corporation, as described in&nbsp; Team True Grit&rsquo;s latest dev blog.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Planetside 2&nbsp;</strong>[Player generated missions are coming to the game, in an effort to create more diversity on the battlefields. I really like this in theory, I wonder how well it will work out in practice.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/25/player-power-planetside-2s-player-missions/'><span style="font-size:10px;">RPS</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Planetside 2&prime;s missions are pretty general. They&rsquo;re mostly focused around the push and pull of attack and defense at specific spots on the map. That&rsquo;s fine for just getting teams to fight each other, but it doesn&rsquo;t take advantage of Auraxis. All those valleys and mountains, all the connecting roads, all that space can feel unused. While there&rsquo;s probably an argument to be made for letting the game generate smaller missions for people to take part in away from the larger territory control meta-game, SOE are doing it differently: soon they&rsquo;ll allowing players to request support via player-generated missions, mini-alerts that will create hotspots on the map for players to drop into.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Pathfinder Online&nbsp;</strong>[for those that don't know, PO is a recently Kickstarter funded fantasy sandbox. One of its main features is player-created settlements, and this of course includes the buildings as well. In this last dev blog they provide some details on the process and it's a woozy; definitely not your average click and craft MMO.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://goblinworks.com/blog/'><span style="font-size:10px;">GoblinWorks blog</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Settlements in Pathfinder Online are essentially groups of plots into which buildings are designed to fit. These plots are grouped into several large districts, each with its own potential building sites for buildings of various sizes. Some structures gain a benefit from sharing a district with other structures of similar or linked purpose. Settlement layouts aren't grid puzzles like the game Cathedral; they're more like planned subdivisions with curving roads, some predefined open spaces and lots of various sizes. The largest and most important buildings can't all be crammed into the same district, but deciding which buildings you want, which districts to put them in, and which plots in the districts to build on will provide settlement leaders with plenty of customization options.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/_DYciTCT41o?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Players with the appropriate level of settlement permissions are able to initiate the construction of structures from the mayor's desk in the settlement's hall. Normally, these will be characters who are assigned to a settlement leadership position. To build a structure, an authorized character must select an available plot on the settlement map, choose the type of building to build there, and meet all the necessary prerequisites. Building requirements usually include minimum DI (development index) ratings, prerequisite buildings, or more rarely a specific settlement alignment or faction standing . When the desired building is chosen, the appropriate resources are set aside, and players can sign up for the construction of the building.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[interview with Carbine's Content Director, Mike Donatelli, about the ongoing Closed Beta 3 to which I still haven't received any invites (or have I? mwaha *chokes and starts coughing* ... no I haven't). Great interview, definitely read it in full as I'm only able to highlight just a few responses.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32633'><span style="font-size:10px;">ZAM</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Are you glad to get to the moment where we&rsquo;ll have two factions facing off against each other?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
I think so. We had some PvP in the last &#91;phase of beta]; we&rsquo;ve actually opened it up this time, not only just open world where you can get in there and if you wanted to fight somebody you could. We brought in a lot of the PvP stuff we&rsquo;ve been itching to test, like rated battlegrounds and what not.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>We saw a lot of class updates in the patch notes. What&rsquo;s keeping your designers busy: is it responding to feedback from players, or continuing to roll out and generate new content?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
I would say a large majority of the actual mechanics and the rollout of abilities are pretty much solid. What we&rsquo;re doing now, and the intention is from now until ship, is pretty much 90% iteration at this point in time.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><strong>The idea of Farside--a zone on a moon--sounds awesome. What was the story behind it?</strong><br />
&nbsp;<br />
If we go back to the root of it, we&rsquo;re talking about space westerns and having the ability to go from place to place. We didn&rsquo;t want to be terrestrially bound the entire time either. We were saying we could go to moons, we could go to planetoids, and we could go to asteroids.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Farside is the first step; there are other tracks and zones and places that are off-planet, this is just the first one that &#91;players are] going to see. And we can get to do a lot of great things that we didn&rsquo;t get to do here. The number one thing is gravity, or anti-gravity in this case</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3PRXqnHkjBw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gWPt4CeTgTE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/level%201%20mmo.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:#808080;">taken from&nbsp;</span><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://daigetsu.tumblr.com/'><span style="color:#808080;">daigetsu</span></a></em></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Revisiting Ultima Online&nbsp;</strong>[A modern look at the grandafather of MMOs. Still holding strong on many accounts and still more MMO than most of the new comers.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/28/second-wind-ultima-online/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The granddaddy of MMORPGs and one of the only true sandboxes still standing turns 16 this autumn, having survived EverQuest, World of Warcraft, the internet bubble, EA's blundering, Mythic's takeover, layoffs, price hikes, a recession, and disastrous design shifts. But is it still worth playing?</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>So I spent my first few nights in-game hunting for a new house spot, not an easy task on Atlantic, which remains overcrowded (other servers seldom rise above "low population," by comparison, and most have large house plots to spare). But I did find one, a good one near the Shrine of Honor, and so I took a few more days customizing every tile from the ground up, decorating it, and filling it up with the loot I'd stashed on all my characters for my eventual return. Home. It might be isometric and stylized, but even today, few MMOs offer this level of housing personalization.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Worst of All Worlds&nbsp;</strong>[A critical look at the F2P model and why it's in many ways reducing the fun for some types of players] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://inanage.com/2013/06/28/worst-of-all-worlds/'><span style="font-size:10px;">InAnAge</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The real kicker though is the fact that F2P more or less invalidates any real sense of optimization. All of us already know that the most efficient move in a F2P game is to load up on XP potions, convert cash into in-game currency to clean out the AH, and open lockboxes all day until we have everything of any value. There is no possible way to beat that. &ldquo;Just figure out the most efficient path without spending money.&rdquo; Playing with an artificial handicap is simply not as engaging to me. You can technically increase the difficulty of a FPS by decreasing your mouse sensitivity, but that will never feel as satisfying as having more intelligent opponents.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Have MMOs Become too Easy?&nbsp;</strong>[Mark Kern, ex-team lead on WoW and founder of Red 5 (Firefall) has a thing or two to say about the incredible casualness that is predominant in almost every MMO these days.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/7540/Mark-Kern-Have-MMOs-Become-Too-Easy.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMORPGcom</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>It all started with the drive to make MMOs, which in the EQ and Ultima days were a niche and hard core game, more accessible. Accessibility was the mantra when I was leading the World of Warcraft team. We labored over the user interface for the game, going through many iterations, to find one that would be easy and intuitive for players new to the genre. We created a massive number of quests to lead the player through the world, making sure that they never had to think about what to do next.<br />
...<br />
And it worked. Players came in droves, millions of them. But at what cost? Sometimes I look at WoW and think &ldquo;what have we done?&rdquo; I think I know. I think we killed a genre. There are many reasons I feel this way, but I&rsquo;d like to discuss one in particular, the difficulty curve.<br />
</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>The main thing we lose when lowering the difficulty curve is a sense of achievement. When the bar is lowered so that everyone can reach max level quickly, it makes getting to max level the only sense of accomplishment in the game. We lose the whole journey in between, a journey that is supposed to feel fun and rewarding on its own.</span></div><br />
<i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Game Design</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>The Prototype Problem</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[Or why the first 3 quarters of making a game will usually take less than finishing up the last quarter of developing] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=6112'><span style="font-size:10px;">RampantGames</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>There are parts of the software development cycle that may seem counter-intuitive to people new it. Thanks to crowd-funding and the increased visibility into the development process from the indies, gamers and crowd-funding &ldquo;backers&rdquo; may find themselves in a difficult place of witnessing what may appear as a train-wreck as they follow development. Oftentimes, it&rsquo;s just business as usual in this crazy field we call game development.&nbsp; And sometimes, it really is a train-wreck. It&rsquo;s hard to tell the difference.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
In my experience, one of the main things that causes indie game development projects to fail is the incredible gulf between prototype and product.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>It&rsquo;s not uncommon for indie game developers to put forth a herculean effort to get a prototype up and running &ndash; to get that first level humming along &ndash; and then get bogged down when it comes time to turn it into a full-fledged product. It is ten times easier to hard-code something for a demo or prototype than to create a true general purpose system that can handle all the things you want to throw at it.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Starcraft 2&nbsp;</strong>[check-out some really nice plays from last week's SC2 esports action! Guaranteed to leave you wanting more.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.youtube.com/user/WCSStarCraft?feature=watch'><span style="font-size:10px;">WCS Today</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/lpA7ev8bvpk?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Tour de France&nbsp;</strong>[talk about off-topic.. :) Anyway, TdF, cyclism's most prestigious competition is just one day away from starting and it's going to be a crazy one! It's the 100th edition so the terrain was chosen to be as entertaining as possible and it also promises to be a very contended race, with many favorites lining up for a chance to win.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://inrng.com/2013/06/tour-de-france-contenders-preview/'><span style="font-size:10px;">INRG</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>Conclusion</strong><br />
Chris Froome is so far ahead do the others have to settle for second place? No, the Tour brings 20 stages where a crash or a puncture can be enough to ruin anyone&rsquo;s chances and he&rsquo;s as prone as anyone to have a bad day, it happened in&nbsp; Tirreno-Adriatico where the weather iced him and Contador and Vincenzo Nibali rode away. Froome is my pick to win the race but I would not bet with the prices now.<br />
What&rsquo;s striking is the number of riders capable of a top-10 finish. Richie Porte, Tejay van Garderen and Alberto Contador seem to be the safe choices but what of all the others? It&rsquo;s this uncertainty that promises plenty.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7212314.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7212314/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/artosis'>Artosis</a>&nbsp;- One of the most popular SC2 commentators out there, maybe even #1, that recently started streaming on a regular basis. Great commentary, good matches and also some World of Tanks action from time to time, together with his commentating partner,&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/tastelesstv'>Tasteless</a>.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/170-titan-rumors-without-any-credible-source/'>Titan rumors without any credible source.</a></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/WTF1BmSem7c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 28 Jun 2013 19:11:09 +000038af86134b65d0f10fe33d30dd76442ehttp://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-28062013-dust-514-planetside-2-pathfinder-tdf-wut-more-r76http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/fttVKnjckjo/mmo-round-up-27062013-eve-rift-mu-ddo-more-r75
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EVE Online&nbsp;</strong>[EVE might be the first big MMO to include VR headsets like Oculus Rift into its universe. CCO demoed at E3 a very early version of what they have in mind and it seems to have really impressed everyone that tried it] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/14/feature/7534/Demoing-EVEVR-at-E3-2013.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMORGP.com</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/EVE-1.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>We got to demo EVE-VR and the fast-paced space combat as seen through your own cockpit was simply awesome. The game was developed by five members of the EVE team for fun and now is looking like a solid addition to the studio&rsquo;s game library. Using just missiles and lasers, you fight in a 7 vs. 7 combat scenario which only last a few minutes, but what a few minutes. Enhanced by the full 3D surround view of the goggles, the game brings you right into the seat of your ship.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll let Bill and Rob explain it in their own words.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> RIFT&nbsp;</strong>[Save Silverwood & Freemarch from the forces of the planes, starting June 27th. Everyone participating in this new event will receive extra currency / loot, new achievement and a chance for some rare drops] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://community.riftgame.com/en/2013/06/25/freemarch-silverwood-under-siege/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Announcement</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The forces of the planes have launched an offensive outside the great cities of Telara, and your help is needed to defend them. Ascended of all levels must band together and repel the countless invasions marching on Silverwood and Freemarch!</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> DC Universe Online&nbsp;</strong>[11 million registered players for SOE's MMO, according to creative director Jens Andersen. The interview also contains details on the game's transition to F2P] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/195050/How_freetoplay_breathed_new_life_into_DC_Universe_Online.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"We wanted people to have access to the entire game -- everything. All of our launch content, I should say. That was important to us; we didn't want to have to say, 'Well, you hit level 14, time to pay now.' Or do this 'poke-you-in-eye strategy' to annoy you until you sub up or give us some money or purchase something. We wanted to make it more like, 'If you like this game a lot, and you want to dedicate more time to it -- not pay-to-win, but dedicate more time to it, and front-load that time and progression, you can do that through various means. Otherwise, if you want to play it for free, you'd go at the pace that the game determines for you."</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> D&D Online&nbsp;</strong>[new screenshots released containing all the new monsters that will be coming in the upcoming expansion, The ShadowFell Conspiracy ] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/26/ddo-the-shadowfell-conspiracy-shots-contains-all-sorts-of-mythological-monsters/'><span style="font-size:10px;">VG247</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"> </p>
<br />
<p><i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Final Fantasy XIV&nbsp;</strong>[Final Fantasy XIV Beta Impressions] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32618'><span style="font-size:10px;">ZAM</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The game itself is built around players being a bit more deliberate with their attacks and abilities and the resource system lines up with that. Sure you could dump all of your TP into your max Potency combos, but that pool only refills so fast. What if you need some MP regen for a heal later? What if there&rsquo;s an aggro drop or your Archer decides to unload all of his cooldowns and steal enmity from you while tanking? This isn&rsquo;t the first time a game&rsquo;s encouraged players to pay attention to their resources, but it feels like it works fairly well with the slower pace of the combat.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>While I didn&rsquo;t get the chance to try everything in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn during the two weekends, I do feel that I&rsquo;ve experienced enough of the game that I&rsquo;m far more interested in the game than I was before and am considering putting in a preorder. With that said, there are still a lot of questions I have about the game I&rsquo;m hoping to have answered in the next few months between now and the August 27th release. What&rsquo;s the plan for future content additions? What&rsquo;s the small group content like? Is their tanking fun? Is endgame primarily raiding-based or is there a true endgame model for all of the players?</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Kingdom Under Fire 2 (CN)&nbsp;</strong>[game client now occupies 11GBs, down from... 70 :o Looking on the other side of the issue, the game seemed incredibly well optimized, so maybe they should've kept the huge size, if it meant it could run very smooth on old hardware, like shown in the below video] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://news.mmosite.com/content/2013-06-27/kingdom_under_fire_ii_game_client_downsized_from_70g_to_11g.shtml'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMOSite</span></a></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/8hvc1c9UReo?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> MU Rebirth&nbsp;</strong>[The successor of MU Online is getting real close to its closed beta, which will start on July 3rd and go on for a week. The original MU was an absolutely collosal grindfest (you could actually leave your hero afk to fight a boss) but yeah, MMO nostalgia hit me so I have to at least mention this one as well. :)] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/27/mu-rebirth-begins-beta-sign-ups/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>MU Rebirth is a remake of MU Online with a heavy PvP emphasis. The level cap will remain at 400, although Webzen says that it is significantly speeding up the leveling process so that players will hit that number in two hours. Yes, you read that right. This plays into the "rebirth" feature, which allows players to go back to level 1 while retaining gained stats.<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides / Tips / Giveaways</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> NeverWinter&nbsp;</strong>[Gift Pack Giveaway (note that you have to be logged in to be able to get it)] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.tentonhammer.com/neverwinter/giveaways/gift-pack'>TenTonHammer</a>&nbsp;+&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32629'>ZAM</a></span></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The Neverwinter Gift Pack includes:<br />
&nbsp;<br />
10 Potions of Rejuvenation<br />
10 Tidespan Potions<br />
10 Potions of Lesser Healing<br />
5 Portable Altars<br />
5 Identify Scrolls (bound)<br />
Bandana</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[A really nice cheat sheet containing 20 quick facts about the game. Great for those that haven't watched it too closely so far!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.tentonhammer.com/wildstar/cheat-sheet-20-facts'><span style="font-size:10px;">TenTonHammer</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Characters gain more rested XP when they log out at their home, and the rate is even higher if their home is filled with swag and loot.<br />
WildStar housing is pioneer-style. Characters don't just buy a prefab house in some neighborhood filled with multiple copies of the same thing - they have to clear their plots of monsters and tree stumps and angry space plants.<br />
Customization of players' houses is not just cosmetic. A sky plot has "sockets" which can be filled with a variety of "plugs," like functional crafting benches, ore mines, vegetable gardens and helicopter pads. And some plugs give out daily quests. </span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> ArcheAge&nbsp;</strong>[Compposer Guide, or how to create your own songs inside the game, using the crafting system] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;">via&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/27/archeage-player-guide-shows-how-to-compose-your-own-music/'>Massively</a></span></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/VgbdeoGLSYo?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hhyeqK-KSnk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uGyCFnezJ-E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LqHltHcroVc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sD7x1KF8N8o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> ArcheAge's business model&nbsp;</strong>[while the chances are very high that it will go towards a F2P model, like it already is doing in KR, there are many ways to implement a F2P system, especially in a sandbox. Jef Reahard takes a look at some of them] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/27/lost-continent-archeage-needs-a-business-model-too/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>This is important in a business model discussion because there's a school of thought out there that says that certain monetization models simply will not work for sandbox games. Sandboxes, and even sandparks like ArcheAge, rely heavily on player interaction to function. These are generally not solo-friendly games even though they may feature soloable content, and so any progression-related advantages available via cash shop products have more of an affect on these group-centric emergent worlds than they do on linear solo-centric designs.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>I think it's unlikely that Trion will go with B2P for ArcheAge if only because it will limit early adopters much as we saw with Defiance. This is anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but I have dozens of gamer acquaintances who steered clear of Defiance due to its $60 launch price, even though they knew it was playable sans a sub fee after the initial buy-in.<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>The Time Bomb Every Guild Leader Holds</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[So true! For more than just Guild Leading] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.worldofmatticus.com/the-time-bomb-every-guild-leader-holds/'><span style="font-size:10px;">World of Matticus</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Have you heard of the guild doomsday clock?<br />
&nbsp;<br />
It&rsquo;s this internal timer that GMs have. When it hits zero, the guild collapses in spectacular bits. The progression clock is naturally about raiding. If you recruit new players or get progression kills, time is added. If you lose players for any reason or wipe continually to bosses, time is subtracted.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Next-gen consoles are looking 'more and more' like PCs, says Alienware</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[heh, they might be a tiny bit biased, but it's also not easy to give them many counter-arguments] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/27/4469660/next-gen-consoles-are-looking-more-and-more-like-pcs-says-alienware'><span style="font-size:10px;">Polygon</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"If you look at what Sony and Microsoft are doing, they're taking PCs and putting them into the living room. It's an AMD CPU, it's an AMD graphics card, it's a standard desktop hard drive. It's unbelievable. That tells you that the PC is the gaming platform of choice out there, there is nothing out there that's better. You look at what they're trying to do and they're becoming more and more like PCs."<br />
</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"You're installing games now instead of running them off the disc, because that's the right thing to do; you're downloading games digitally, which we've been doing on PC for years; they're integrating certain TV aspects and stuff, well, ten years ago we started experimenting with media center.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> GOG.com Summer Sale&nbsp;</strong>[just a small reminder that the incredibly awesome no DRM Summer Sale is still going on over at GoodOldGames and well, it's awesome! Definitely check-it out if you're looking to get some really cheap games.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gog.com/'><span style="font-size:10px;">GOG.com</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/gog%20summer.png" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/lKMaRHm6J-Y?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7210675.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7210675/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><u>Stompalomp:</u>&nbsp;<em>AMA - If you could pick any game to be released tomorrow, what would it be and why?</em></p>
<p><span style="color:#333333;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:12px;">Nice question!&nbsp;</span></span></span> <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/o.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' /><span style="color:#333333;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:12px;">&nbsp;I'll pick one out of each genres that I usually play: Caesar 5, Ultima Online 2, Baldur's Gate 3, NOLF 3, Alpha Centauri 2.</span></span></span><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/themittanidotcom'>TheMittaniDotCom</a>&nbsp;- Funnily enough it's a pretty popular stream, even though it "only" &nbsp;mostly shows an earth cam of sorts, just placed in the EVE Online universe. If your thing is to watch space ships dock, undock and warp, all on a very relaxing soundtrack, then this is your stream! <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/).gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> They also feature other games from time to time and provide additional EVE content.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/311-wildstar-mt-serious-mmo-is-serious-seriously/'>WildStar Main Thread</a></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/fttVKnjckjo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Thu, 27 Jun 2013 18:35:11 +000082161242827b703e6acf9c726942a1e4http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-27062013-eve-rift-mu-ddo-more-r75http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/uNyf_MY32NE/mmo-round-up-26062013-aion-gw2-tera-warhammer-40k-more-r74
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><br />
<i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Aion&nbsp;</strong>[Aion 4.0 - Dark Betrayer launches today, and also includes significant bonuses for those choosing Asmodian as a faction.] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://na.aiononline.com/betrayal/'>Off Expansion Page</a>&nbsp;+&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://na.aiononline.com/en/news/announcements/asmodian-initiative.php'>Incentive Program</a></span></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/asmodian-incentive.png" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Age of Wushu (US)&nbsp;</strong>[Expansion (Legends of Mount Hua) features revealed and they're pretty awesome - a competition in which top players from the servers fight amongst eachother for extra fame, new instance and a new battle arena, new system with bonuses for new players, new factions system and more] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.ageofwushu.com/news/view/171'><span style="font-size:10px;">Age of Wushu Off Site</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Age of Wushu: Legends of Mount Hua is almost here. We&rsquo;ve already given a few sneak peeks before and during E3 2013, but now it&rsquo;s time to reveal everything else! Here is a list of all the exciting features players can expect when the 1st major expansion for Age of Wushu arrives in coming weeks.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Jagex (Runescape)&nbsp;</strong>[2012 was the company's best year ever, with over &pound;50M in revenue and "tens of millions of new players" in the game. The dev team for Runescape also doubled during this period and Jagex now has 550 employees. Not bad for a browser MMO. :) ] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.develop-online.net/press-releases/101498/Jagex-in-2012'><span style="font-size:10px;">Jagex Press Release</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Looking ahead to 2013 and beyond, Gerhard continued,&ldquo;2013 is set to be an even bigger year for Jagex as we release the biggest update in RuneScape&rsquo;s history, launch Transformers Universe and publish a number of new titles.&rdquo;</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[ArenaNet wants to launch new content for GW2 every 2 weeks. That's pretty crazy, no matter how small or big the updates are. On the other side of things, I wonder if huge, time intensive features wont be negatively affected by this.&nbsp;<em>P.S. Sky Pirates has very recently gone live!</em>] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/arenanet-planning-fortnightly.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamerzines</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Our goal is that as we do this, we&rsquo;re getting better and better at it. We&rsquo;re starting to catch the bigger mistakes that we would&rsquo;ve missed earlier on. We&rsquo;re starting to build the infrastructure, the framework and the tools to help us do this because we really think that this is the longevity of the product,&rdquo; he told us with an air of confidence.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&ldquo;If we can push this, if we can add content every two weeks that is engaging to the players, then really it&rsquo;s almost like a TV show at that point. It&rsquo;s kind of stay tuned until next week for the thrilling conclusion of&hellip;That&rsquo;s where our goal is, and it&rsquo;s really fascinating when you have an entire studio dedicated to pulling off.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> TERA&nbsp;</strong>[a new battleground is being added to the game, but it definitely aims to stand out from the rest. It promises to be huge, with castle sieging, wall tearing and the likes. Think SotA from WoW just with a bit more "umphh"] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://tera.enmasse.com/corsairs-stronghold'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Preview Page</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/qvv0UxwP8oo?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Elder Scrolls Online&nbsp;</strong>[interview with Lead Gameplay Designer Nick Konkle.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.tentonhammer.com/elder-scrolls-online/interviews/alliance-wars-and-next-gen-consoles'><span style="font-size:10px;">TenTonHammer</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>All the testing is still internal, but we&rsquo;re pretty excited to get that part of the game into the beta. We just had a big office-wide PvP test that was quite a bit of fun, and there are any number of anecdotes that I could share from that experience. But let&rsquo;s just say it&rsquo;s pretty big; there are some epic battles going on with 50 on 50 groups meeting on the open field.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>So when first-person went in our game I was expecting it to be similar, like I could play it this way, but I probably won&rsquo;t. But I do. It&rsquo;s absolutely my preferred way to play now. It&rsquo;s just super immersive and cool, and it&rsquo;s the only way I play now.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>early on that was a very common thing where people would essentially create a giant PBAoE bomb. That was actually super popular in Dark Age of Camelot.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
To counter that, there&rsquo;s a skill called Anti-Magic Field that drops down a bubble where anyone who tries to cast a spell will get zapped: they&rsquo;ll be silenced and take a bunch of damage. So if you&rsquo;re an opposing sorcerer and you&rsquo;ve got that on your bar, and see a group getting ready to do a PBAoE bomb, you drop that down and all they do is stun and silence themselves.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Division&nbsp;</strong>[Looks like Ubisoft is seriously considering a PC version as well, and since the video was recorded at E3, this was the case even before the extremely popular petition. Almost seems like a sure thing, although the launch will probably be a bit delayed, compared with the console ones.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/06/24/tom-clancys-the-division-interview-e3-2013'><span style="font-size:10px;">IGN</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe src="http://widgets.ign.com/video/embed/content.html?url=http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/06/24/tom-clancys-the-division-interview-e3-2013" width="468" height="263" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade&nbsp;</strong>[...is pushing all the right buttons with me. Here are some quotes from the newsletter, all made by its Creative Director] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://observationdeck.io9.com/the-first-tidbits-about-the-new-warhammer-40k-mmo-are-o-538840675'><span style="font-size:10px;">Observation Deck</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>In Eternal Crusade, we&rsquo;re presenting a war on a planetary scale, but what you want to do in the game world is really up to you - there's no traditional quest or leveling structure in the experience. When you drop down to the planet with your friends, you&rsquo;ll have a great overview of the ongoing conflict due to both traditional UI elements and community channels.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Part of what makes this possible is that MMO technology has come far enough to allow for true skill & precision-based gameplay and we&rsquo;ve made a deliberate choice to make progression as horizontal as possible.&nbsp;</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>The other part is that we&rsquo;re not creating a "content-heavy" world, but rather one driven by gameplay systems. There are unique spots to find, environmental lore bits and an ongoing narrative, but community efforts and Tyranid invasions drive the battle for the surface while the shapes and challenges of the underworld are generated procedurally. Our aim is to make an online world that never stops being able to surprise its players.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[Closed beta 3 has started! Focuses on PvP. :o Click the link for the full patch notes.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/welcome_to_cbt3_ready_to_rumble.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Wildstar-Online</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Another week, another milestone. Team WildStar has been itching for the chance to get some faction on faction action going since we started beta, so we're excited about this round of beta. It's going to be our first opportunity to test out what PvP on Nexus looks like outside of Battlegrounds, Arenas, and Warplots. We're expecting to see some big fights in and around Whitevale and Farside. While our more curious testers are likely going to find bugs/exploits/issues with the PvP ruleset, we're pretty confident in the beta community's professionalism so far and expect to see a great play experience on both sides of the fence. Play nicely!</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/12lO9hapi5E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EuHjXQBg8NE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> My MMO Journal&nbsp;</strong>[Pretty cool idea. So, how many of you would need pages instead of rows for each day? On the opposite side, I can see myself scribbling "afked in Orgrimmar, trolled a gold seller" quite often] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://biobreak.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/my-mmo-journal/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Bio Break</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>It&rsquo;s pretty basic, really.&nbsp; The idea is that every day I&rsquo;ll log what games I played and what I achieved or worked on in that title.&nbsp; This isn&rsquo;t going to be for Bio Break posting or anything, but just for personal use.&nbsp; I think it&rsquo;s going to help me stay more balanced between the games I&rsquo;m playing, be able to see at a glance what I was doing last time, and have a visual record of my characters&rsquo; progress through MMOs.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> #MyEQStory&nbsp;</strong>[MMO memories and nostalgia at their best.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.keenandgraev.com/2013/06/25/myeqstory'><span style="font-size:10px;">Keen and Graev's&nbsp;</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>At the end of our hunt one of the other Barbarian Warriors in the group announced that he had a friend who was making the trip to Freeport.&nbsp; &ldquo;What&rsquo;s Freeport?&rdquo;, I remember asking him.&nbsp; He then went on to tell me that it was across the continent and one of the cities where Humans dwell.&nbsp; &ldquo;The hunting is much better there&rdquo;, he said.&nbsp; That sounded great to me.&nbsp; I had spent a couple days now killing things in the snowy lands of Halas and I was ready to move on.&nbsp; &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll set out in 20 minutes.&nbsp; Make sure you have time to make the trip because it&rsquo;s a long one&rdquo;.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Alpaca Evolution (iOS /&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Beltheva.Alpaka'>Android</a>)&nbsp;</strong>[Wow, this game might actually beat QWOP when it comes to weirdness / "wtf am I doing" feeling] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Android/Alpaca+Evolution/news.asp?c=51851'><span style="font-size:10px;">Pocket Gamer</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>With another tap, I stuff the corpse of my fallen herd-mate into my torso, melding its flesh into my own in order to become something more, something better.</span></div></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/alpaca%20evolution.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Kickstarter&nbsp;</strong>[bad week for the popular crowd-funding service] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://unsubject.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/kickstander-a-bad-week-for-kickstarter/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Unsubject</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Kickstarter / crowdfunding will continue to attract attention from the gaming sites as it is cheap / easy content and fits neatly into the &lsquo;previews&rsquo; category of those sites. It also fits nicely with the cheap gaming / indie vibe that a vocal portion of games culture seem to be focusing on right now. But some of the nasty bits of reality are starting to creep up. And we&rsquo;re still yet to see the collapse of a really big crowdfunded project.<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Zero Punctuation on E3&nbsp;</strong>['nuff said really... expect wisdom wrapped up in complete silliness] -&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7595-E3-2013'>ZP</a></span></p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7207819.js"></script>
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<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/90stardust'>90Stardust</a>&nbsp;- SC2 pro, ex-BW player, has an incredibly entertaining Protoss style &nbsp;and oh yeah, the winner of this month's DreamHack.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/482-help-me-write-an-mmo-column/'>Help me Write an MMO Column.</a></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/uNyf_MY32NE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:00:08 +0000bf8229696f7a3bb4700cfddef19fa23fhttp://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-26062013-aion-gw2-tera-warhammer-40k-more-r74http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/Fu3OqN5-vAs/mmo-round-up-25062013-gw2-dayz-firefall-destiny-wildstar-more-r73
<!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EverQuest 2&nbsp;</strong>[Darkness Dawns, the game's 67th Update is coming on July 30 - old dungeons made relevant again, Character Advancement Templates, Three New Contested Avatar Raids, Arena of the Gods (a raid instance that allows 24 players to challenge any of the 9 avatars that are in game)] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://everquest2.co.uk/news/producers-letter-gu67'><span style="font-size:10px;">Everquest 2 Official Site</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>We are really excited about a new story quest line that will pick up from our last game update in April (GU66: Scars of the Awakened). We can tell you that there is an EPIC event brewing in Cobalt Scar that could turn the world on its head and YOU are the catalyst.&nbsp;</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EVE Online&nbsp;</strong>[CCP devs sure love their graphs, and even better, they love to show them on their blog as well. Today they gave us a look at Odissey's impact on Exploration Sites. Spoilers: it's huge] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/exploration-sites-statistics'><span style="font-size:10px;">EVE DevBlog</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>There have been two major changes to exploration that impact on the graphs I'm going to show. It's much less painful to scan sites down which means more people should spend time doing it and the mechanics in the newly named Data and Relic sites are different than they were previously therefore more people might want to spend time finding them.</span></div></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/Ruined_Guristas_Monument_Site.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[2 updates in one day for the game's Gem Store] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/stylish-new-items-available-in-the-gem-store/'>New Items</a>&nbsp;+&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/send-gem-store-items-to-your-friends-with-gifting/'>Gifting Option</a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>That is why we are proud to announce a new feature in the Gem Store: gifting! Now you have the option to purchase most items in the Gem Store on behalf of your friends</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>Thanks to the innovation and efforts of the Black Lion Trading Company, you can now show off your trendy side with our new armor skins, honor one of the Order of Whispers&rsquo; finest agents with a special new plush backpack, and shred your enemies in the comfort of your own custom arena.&nbsp;</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Anarchy Online&nbsp;</strong>[Happy 12th Birthday! Special offer for players that extend their game-time during this period and there are also lots of special events / loot prepared for new and old players] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=2746&table=CONTENT'><span style="font-size:10px;">Anarchy Online Off Site</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>As part of this year's celebration, have a special offer. If you buy or extend your membership by 3, 6 or 12 months, you will receive 50% more game time. As a part of this offer, you will also obtain the Dust Brigade Parasite Helmet. This offer will be available from Monday the 24th of June to Monday the 8th of July.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>The Desert Nomads are back!<br />
No birthday without the crazy woman controlling the entertainment! "The Tinker" is back in Newland Desert and is ready to make large and explosive gifts for her favorite enemy, "The Desert Rider". Join her in her madness and take out the many "Desert Nomads" to find parts for the many gifts she wants to make. The "Desert Nomads" will be located in Newland Desert, Mort, Perpetual Wastelands and Broken Shores.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Top 10 Korean Gaming list&nbsp;</strong>[3 MMOs in the list, SC2 on 5th spot, and LoL is a try-hard. Also, Warcraft 3 still in top 10?! :o Koreans sure love old RTS games, with BroodWar probably being just outside this list.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://news.mmosite.com/content/2013-06-24/_weekly_top_10_korean_gaming_list.shtml'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMOSite</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>According to the statistics from Korean search website Gametrics, nothing special in the list with League of Legends keeping the NO.1 seat for 48 weeks and the occupancy drops a liltle. Blade & Soul's upcoming expansion bring some occupancy back with NO.6 seat unchanged.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Firefall&nbsp;</strong>[Final closed beta phase live this Thursday + new trailer to celebrate the occasion. About time!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/27914/Final-Closed-Beta-Phase-Now-Live'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMORPG.com</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/KwnswcLOskw?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> DayZ&nbsp;</strong>[Dean Hall, the brainzzzzz behind the zombie shooter says the team is planning to add even more sandbox features to the game, taking a cue from EVE. Also, the game is close to the end of alpha and apparently a weird kind of closed "buy-in" beta will come around soon enough after.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/25/dayz-launch/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Rock, Paper, Shotgun</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>&ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s where the whole open alpha approach comes in,&rdquo; he told RPS. &ldquo;Because we&rsquo;ve got base-building planned, and I think we&rsquo;re going to add in a lot of clan stuff and group dynamics. So we&rsquo;ve talked about something like a clan tattoo. I think a lot of it&rsquo;s going to be about in-game &#91;user-oriented] content &ndash; kind of like EVE.&rdquo;</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>&ldquo;Our worst fears came true &#91;in The War Z] &ndash; and they weren&rsquo;t that bad.&rdquo;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&ldquo;So we were like &lsquo;Fuck it&rsquo;. We may as well make this a good game. The best way to hate on haters is deliver on your promises. So the idea is, we want it to be a good game, and we&rsquo;re not there yet. But I like to think we&rsquo;ve addressed some of the elements that were the worst problems of the lot. We&rsquo;ve attacked them. We might not necessarily have solved them completely, but we&rsquo;ve made good progress.&rdquo;</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Wildstar&nbsp;</strong>[Jeff Kurtenacker reveals official Aurin and Exile audio themes. Check the link to listen to them.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.wildstarfans.net/2013/06/wildstar-composer-reveals-official.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">Wildstar Fans</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"A Story of Hope and Healing" is the official theme for the Aurin race in WildStar.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Jeff has since uploaded an arrangement of the official Exile theme as well! The tune is entitled "War Will Come" and Jeff describes the theme as follows:</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides / Tips / Giveaways</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> LOTRO Giveaway&nbsp;</strong>[The "A Casual Stroll to Mordor" blog goes out in style, organizing a huge giveaway for anyone interested in turbine points] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/06/going-out-with-a-bang5000-turbine-points-giveaway/'><span style="font-size:10px;">A&nbsp;Casual Stroll to Mordor</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>We have one (1) code worth 5,000 Turbine Points to giveaway to a lucky fan of CSTM.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
No rules on what to buy yourself with it but make sure it&rsquo;s something totally awesome!</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LNm0Lf_AVYE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H6CrphIU43E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Destiny&nbsp;</strong>[Mail Sack - Bungie employees answer questions from the community] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.bungie.net/7_Space-Mail-Sack-Magic/en-us/News/News?aid=10816'><span style="font-size:10px;">Bungie.net</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><u>What's the biggest tease you can give us about Destiny?</u><br />
&nbsp;<br />
It&rsquo;s a dangerous game you invite us to play. Here is who flocked to your dare.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
My god, it&rsquo;s full of stars.<br />
<u>Kevin Yanes, Production Engineer</u><br />
&nbsp;<br />
At E3, you only saw a tiny fraction of the kinds of things you&rsquo;ll be doing in Destiny.<br />
<u>Lars Bakken, Design Lead</u><br />
</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span><u>What month are you looking forward to the most in 2014?</u><br />
&nbsp;<br />
The one in which Destiny is released to our beloved community of Guardians in waiting.<br />
You didn&rsquo;t really think it would be that easy.&nbsp; Did you?&nbsp; Silly rabbit.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Human Risks&nbsp;</strong>[very interesting comparison of single-player and multiplayer games, based on the effect they have on certain types of players] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.killtenrats.com/2013/06/22/human-risks/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Kill Ten Rats</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>If one really horrible thing can ruin your entire night, PvP will almost inevitably be a harrowing experience for you, and any multiplayer gaming is a crapshoot. Beyond just the effects of anonymity, wide exposure teaches you that some people are just genuinely horrible human beings. And they want to share that with you.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
If you are the sort to laugh it off or counter-troll, the downside of PvP and multiplayer gaming is limited for you. If you seek conflict rather than avoiding it, the internet will always have more for you. If you remember the positive and forget the negative, the downside is temporary while the upside is lasting.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>21 Things You Don&rsquo;t Hear in Raid Finder</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[funnily enough, some of these actually apply to the entire internet] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.worldofmatticus.com/21-things-you-dont-hear-in-raid-finder/'><span style="font-size:10px;">World of Matticus</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Ghostcrawler? Hell yeah I agree with everything he&rsquo;s said about my class!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I&rsquo;m just running raid finder for fun. I don&rsquo;t need valor or loot.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
I respect your opinion. I think it&rsquo;s absolutely valid.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Gee guys, I&rsquo;d love to queue up with all of you again!</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Firefox&nbsp;</strong>[The latest FF version gives a significant boost to the browser's performance in games and other high-intensity applications. Keep it up FF, I'd love to have a good excuse to ditch Chrome ^^] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/195036/Latest_Firefox_release_optimizes_browser_for_games.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The latest version of Firefox debuts a new subset of J&#097;v&#097;script that Mozilla said "enables developers to create high-intensity applications, like 3D games and photo processing, directly on the web without having to install additional software or use plugins."<br />
&nbsp;<br />
"Now developers have a low-cost solution to bring high performance games and applications to the Web with technologies like J&#097;v&#097;script, Emscripten and WebGL."</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Routine&nbsp;</strong>[Wow. This one really took me by surprise! :o Seems like Amnesia with guns, based on the Moon and oh yeah, with perma-death. wat] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.lunar-software.com/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Lunar Software</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Routine is a first person horror exploration game set on an abandoned Moon base. Your job is to find enough data to uncover the truth behind the strange disappearance of everyone stationed on the Lunar Research Station.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Be immersed with Full body awareness, Deadzone aiming, no HUD, no health bars or points system... you must run, hide and survive the best you can against what lurks in the base.</span></div></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/iAcAd1fUiy8?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> World of Tanks vs XBOX One&nbsp;</strong>[Wargamings CEO Victor Kislyi has some criticism on Microsoft and its F2P support on their upcoming console] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-06-24-world-of-tanks-and-the-free-to-play-console-war'><span style="font-size:10px;">GamesIndustry.biz</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"With Microsoft, unfortunately it's not 100 per cent free-to-play because it requires the Gold subscription to Xbox Live membership," explains Kislyi. "But that's a Microsoft requirement which is valid for us and for Activision and for EA and all other partners. They cannot drop it for us because they would have to drop it for everyone and it would be a total mess for them.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"Microsoft announced for Xbox One - thank God - they are moving to real currency. We will teach - excuse me - we will advise them on how to embrace, sometime in the future, different payment methods like SMS. Right now, it's only credit cards used to buy Microsoft Points which we know is suicide in free-to-play."</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>"I understand we can afford this only because we have this huge critical mass. The game is becoming more and more fair, it's becoming more like a cyber sport already. We're building the next football, like FIFA."<br />
</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><center><script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/7204820.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7204820/">Will this work?</a></noscript></center></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<br />
<br />
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><u>Euph:</u>&nbsp;<em>What games are you expecting Blizz to pop out at BlizzCon 2013?</em></p>
<p>All except Titan really.&nbsp; <img src='http://titanfocus.info/public/style_emoticons/default/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' />&nbsp;This means expansions for the 3 power-houses, everything about HS (it might be already launched or might even launch around that time) and even ample details on All-Stars.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><u>Euph:</u>&nbsp;<em>Do you think that Blizz will introduce Smurfs to WoW in the next expansion?</em></p>
<p>Why would they put gnomes in the game again? Doesn't make sense.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><u>Euph:</u><em> If you were a game, what game would you be and why?</em></p>
<p>Solitaire, because I'd be incredibly popular with bored secretaries. ^^<br />
&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/evrelia'>Evrelia</a>&nbsp;- An entertaining and especially informing stream for WoW players, especially warlocks. The guy even has training courses for the class and as far as I can tell they're (almost) worth it! (I'm not really a fan of paying people to teach you how to play a game)<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/440-console-wars/'>Console Wars</a></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/Fu3OqN5-vAs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:23:00 +0000f7e6c85504ce6e82442c770f7c8606f0http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-25062013-gw2-dayz-firefall-destiny-wildstar-more-r73http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TitanFocus/~3/CSpkc6yLyc0/introducing-the-daily-mmo-round-up-column-r72
<!-- isHtml:1 --><!-- isHtml:1 --><p><div class="justify"><span style="color:#b22222;"><strong>Latest MMO Round-Up:</strong></span>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/mmo-round-up-05072013-the-repopulation-everquest-next-planetside-2-7-ways-do-die-more-r82'>MMO Round-Up 05.07.2013 - The Repopulation, EverQuest Next, Planetside 2, 7 Ways do Die & more!</a>&nbsp;Also details on the switch to a weekly schedule.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http&#58;//titanfocus.info/uploads/monthly_06_2013/farnsworth-good-news.jpg" style="border: solid 3px #444; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 10px 10px #999;"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
Titan Focus will always focus on Titan (doh!), but what to do when there's really not much to focus on? We could just retreat into our "den" and wait there until "spring" comes around again, but maybe there's a better way to pass the time? After a lot of back and forth with some of the more trusted and active members here on TF, we decided to create a second stream of news, focused on MMOs in general.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
The first part of this new plan is a (hopefully) daily news column called "Daily MMO Round-Up". I won't go into details about it because you can see its first episode just below. There are two very important aspects about all this though:</p>
<ul class="bbc">
<li><strong>The front-page will stay 100% Titan</strong>. We'll still be searching for news, rumors and everything in between. Nothing changes from this point of view. The new daily column and anything that will accompany it (see next point) will be featured on a&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/'>second "front-page"</a>&nbsp;and also on the forums, in the&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/forum/27-mmos/'>MMOs section</a>. So if you're visiting us only for Titan news, absolutely nothing will change. You won't have to dig through the&nbsp;<em>general news about MMOs</em>&nbsp;clutter to see what's new in the Titan world. But with just one additional click&nbsp;<em>(see the sidebar or the News tab at the top</em>), you'll be able to access a new stream of news, which are from the same domain as Project Titan, namely the MMO genre.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bbc">
<li><strong>This second stream of news is open to contributions.&nbsp;</strong>While I'll be handling the daily news round-up, anyone wishing to start his own column about any subject related to MMOs, no matter if it's a daily / bi-weekly / weekly thing, is more than welcome to contact me so we can set something up!</li>
</ul>
<p>So without further ado, here's the first installment of the new column! Future articles won't appear here on the main frontpage, but on the pages I mentioned and linked above. As always, any feedback is more than appreciated!<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-file-text icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">General News</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> World of Warcraft&nbsp;</strong>[Patch 5.4 class changes summarized] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/features/patch-54-class-changes'><span style="font-size:10px;">TenTonHammer</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Patch 5.4 is still in the PTR and as such is subject to adjustment before it goes live, however there are already many interesting changes lined up. Some classes are set to see many significant changes with this patch.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Everquest&nbsp;</strong>[June 2013 Producer's Letter - Hero’s Forge Armor, Hardcore Heritage, Hot Zones, the return of Big Bags and SOE Live!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.everquest.com/news/producers-letter-june-2013-eq'><span style="font-size:10px;">Everquest Official Site</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>EverQuest is a little behind EverQuest II in SOE Live Registration numbers (Formerly known as Fan Faire). Now, we are all a big family here at SOE and we all cheer each other on but to be honest, I would rather hang out with my EverQuest brethren than any other game’s comrades… So if you are planning to go to Vegas for SOE Live, please sign up soon and be sure to select EverQuest as your main game</span></div><br />
&nbsp;<br />
<i class="icon-bookmark icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Upcoming / Beta</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Division&nbsp;</strong>[Petition to Ubisoft: bring the game to PC as well - 109.000 signatures and counting] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.change.org/petitions/ubisoft-release-tom-clancy-s-the-division-for-pc#share'><span style="font-size:10px;">Change.org</span></a><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> RIFT&nbsp;</strong>[Expansion Reveals and Teasers] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.riftscene.com/reports/rift-3-0-expansion-reveals-and-teasers/'><span style="font-size:10px;">RIFTScene</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>3.0 will be the plane of Water. This doesn’t mean underwater swimming all of the time. They plan to use all aspects of their Lore in regards to Water (like dream worlds, madness, etc). There will be underwater zones, frozen zones, etc. They did not announce how many zones we will see.</span></div><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> BrainStorm&nbsp;</strong>[a F2P MMORTS "powered by knowledge" that is now in Closed Beta. Click the link to sign-up and / or watch the trailer below] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.genia.com/portal/register/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Official Site</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/gfN3lhDOqIw?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Final Fantasy XIV (PS3)&nbsp;</strong>[Screenshots and narration about the beta into a 15-minute video. Technically video footage is not allowed yet, hence the SS galore] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/23/another-screenshot-video-surfaces-for-final-fantasy-xiv/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Massively</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/FnYvUBNJ7RE?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> EverQuest Next&nbsp;</strong>[John Smedley (president of SOE) is quickly out-doing Rob Pardo when it comes to teasing upcoming super secret projects]</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Javascript is not enabled</p><a href="https&#58;//twitter.com/j_smedley/statuses/348691827966242816">Click here to view the Tweet</a></blockquote></center></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> ArcheAge (KR)&nbsp;</strong>[upcoming features to the korean version of the game] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://sandboxer.org/?p=4229'><span style="font-size:10px;">Sandboxer.org</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><u>Player Factions</u>&nbsp;- Guilds will be able to declare their own nations on the northern continent.<br />
<u>Beach Houses</u>&nbsp;- Players will be able to build beach houses in shallow water.<br />
<u>Submarines</u>&nbsp;- Submarines will be introduced into the game<br />
<u>“The Island of Eternity”</u>&nbsp;- New underwater dungeon for players to explore<br />
<u>Appearance Changes</u>&nbsp;- Adding appearance changes (you have to pay for these)<br />
<u>New summer swimwear</u>&nbsp;- Name speaks for itself<br />
<u>Starter areas</u>&nbsp;- Changing the starter areas to make them more streamlined and easier<br />
<u>“Elder Dragons”</u>&nbsp;- AA will be adding Elder dragons</span></div></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><i class="icon-book icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Guides, Tips, Giveaways</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[Sky Pirates of Tyria update - Guides, Coverage & Giveaway] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/sky-pirates-of-tyria-guides-and-coverage'><span style="font-size:10px;">GuildWars2 Hub</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Tyria is in trouble, a new faction called the Aetherblades has arrived and they’re wreaking havoc on the Dragon Bash and Tyria is in desperate need of heroes to face this challenge! That’s why we’ve been graced with ten copies of the game, each including 800 free gems (to try out some of the awesome new steampunk themed gear which you can see on our update overview), to give to potential adventurers to help defend Lion’s Arch and Tyria from not only the Aetherblades, but the Elder Dragons as well!</span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> Guild Wars 2&nbsp;</strong>[Complete Game Giveaway] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/27903/Complete-Game-Giveaway-Celebrates-Sky-Pirates-Launch'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMORPG.com</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>In conjunction with today's story on the new Sky Pirates of Tyria update and tomorrow's launch of the content, ArenaNet has given us 10 (ten) Guild Wars 2 game codes to giveaway to our readers. What do you have to do to get yours? Read on!</span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> RIFT&nbsp;</strong>[F2P Store guide]</p>
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/LcJoFkD9FQk?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> ArcheAge (KR version)&nbsp;</strong>[Free To Play - How It Works. Useful to know since a similar system might be used for the English version as well] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://archeagesource.com/topic/1810-archeage-kr-free-to-play-how-it-works/'><span style="font-size:10px;">ArcheAge Source</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>The Free To Play Model in short<br />
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1) Free to play users...<br />
- can freely choose servers<br />
- can level up to 50<br />
- start with 50 labour points (remember that labour points are account-wide)<br />
- can NOT own houses or scarecrows<br />
- do NOT regenerate labour points<br />
- can NOT pay taxes (if you have houses you will lose them if your account goes F2P)</span></div><br />
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<i class="icon-youtube-play icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Videos / Pics</span><br />
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<p style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6gB49evzJrU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="237" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_9HDRp20UMM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
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<i class="icon-comments icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Opinions / Interviews</span><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> CPP CEO,&nbsp;Hilmar Petursson&nbsp;</strong>[about the company's evolution, handling multiple products and what's in store in the future - "<em>A big company can become very dumb, very quickly"</em>] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-06-21-ccp-ceo-a-big-company-can-become-very-dumb-very-quickly'><span style="font-size:10px;">GamesIndustry.biz</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>But now we are much better structured. EVR &#91;a dogfighting title for Oculus Rift] and Dust 514 are in the EVE universe. World of Darkness is in its own universe, but when we get to that challenge we've already done EVE, done Dust, done experimental things either in virtual reality or mobile.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>I would say the industry has been trending our way. I remember when we started download-only in 2004, there was basically no game like that. We've done all these things, but we did them a decade ago, and now we see people replicating what we're doing because people are catching up</span></div>&nbsp;<br />
<div class="quote2"><span>CCP's Atlanta studio is also still developing World of Darkness, which Petursson called an "ideal property" for the company's second universe.</span></div><br />
<div class="quote2"><span>We made EVE Online for $3 million. If someone were to entertain the proposition today to make an MMO for $3 million, it would be crazy,</span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>The Top 5 TV shows that should be made into an MMOG</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[while not one of my top favorites, I'd definitely add Jericho on the list!] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://mmo-play.com/mmo-blog/the-top-5-tv-shows-that-should-be-made-into-an-mmo-game'><span style="font-size:10px;">MMO Play</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span><strong>5. Stargate</strong><br />
While Stargate was never the most popular series to start with Star is was still an amazing show with plenty of room to create a fantastic game around. Whether you decide to suit up with SG1 or battle the Goa’Uld as a Jaffa you’re bound to have an exciting time jumping through worm holes and fighting off your enemies. </span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Dungeon finders are dangerous</strong><strong>?</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[No for themepark, yes for sandbox, seems to be his conclusion. I say yes to both and any other game that aspires to the MMO tag] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.keenandgraev.com/2013/06/23/dungeon-finders-dangerous'>Keen and Graev</a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>Virtual world / pseudo-sandbox / sandbox MMOs are entirely different.&nbsp; Part of the gameplay is traveling to locations.&nbsp; Content isn’t something players stand around all day expecting to ‘run-through.’&nbsp; The dungeons themselves become hubs of socialization.&nbsp; Meeting people and staying in the area around the dungeon for days isn’t uncommon.&nbsp; ‘Living’ in a dungeon is part of your character’s progression, and blowing through any content diminishes the fun.&nbsp; Someone backpacking across Europe doesn’t want to instantly get to each destination; the experience is rooted deep in the journey.</span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Console controls for MMOs are not for me&nbsp;</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>[impressions on his recent FF XIV beta experience on PS3] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://tobolds.blogspot.ro/2013/06/console-controls-for-mmos-are-not-for-me.html'><span style="font-size:10px;">Tobold's Blog</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>. You select enemies by cycling through them with the left and right keys. Then you need to hold one of the keys on the back of the gamepad to activate your hotkeys, and only then you can use your main buttons to fire off spells and the like. For experienced console warriors that is probably easy, but I found it overly complicated for my basic attack.</span></div><br />
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<i class="icon-compass icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">MMO Design</span><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i>&nbsp;</strong><strong>Group Monetization</strong>&nbsp;[a study on how creating a persistent gaming collective (MMOs being the ideal medium for this) and nurturing the players through fair mechanics can lead to substantial revenue increases, especially with certain optimizations to the payment model] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130617/194428/Group_Monetization.php'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamasutra</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>If the average budget of a participant in a massively single player game like Star Wars: The Old Republic is “x”, then you would expect the aggregate budget of 1000 players to be “1000x”. In the presence of a PGC, the budget is not 1000x, it is “Q”, the group budget. Q is always initially greater than the predicted sum of the budgets of all participants, and continues to rise over time if not inhibited. Q is rapidly affected by the group perception of the game environment, and is capable of rising or falling in real time.</span></div><br />
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<i class="icon-adjust icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Misc / Off-Topic</span><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> PS4&nbsp;</strong>[Sony to announce more PS4 games at Gamescom (August 21st - 25th)] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamechup.com/sony-to-announce-more-ps4-games-at-gamescom/'><span style="font-size:10px;">Gamechup.com</span></a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>“There’s a lot coming. I’m sure you heard from Shu &#91;Yoshida] that he has 30 games in development. 20 of them are going to ship within the first year of the console’s life, and of those 12 are new IP,” he said. “There’s a lot going on, we need to keep stuff back. We’ve got Gamescom for us Europeans–we need to have something to show at Gamescom, don’t we?”</span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> The Last of Us&nbsp;</strong>[Ellen Page, during an AMA on Reddit has said that The Last Of Us "ripped off my likeness". You could argue she has a point, since I was actually incredibly surprised when I realized, after reading this statement, that the voice actress and the model of Ellie from LoU were not done or based on Ellen Page.] -&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-06-24-ellen-page-the-last-of-us-ripped-off-my-likeness'>GamesIndustry.biz</a></p>
<p><div class="quote2"><span>"I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness, but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated," she said in post about the Naughty Dog title.</span></div><br />
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><strong><i class="icon-forward icon-large"></i> BattleField 4&nbsp;</strong>[Official Frostbite 3 Feature Video]</p>
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<p style=" margin-left: 40px;"><iframe id="ytplayer" class="EmbeddedVideo" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://youtube.com/embed/FHzhinTX1q4?html5=1&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen /></iframe></p>
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<i class="icon-beer icon-2x pull-left"></i><span class="Three-Dee">Community Pulse</span><br />
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<p style="text-align:center;">&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Daily AMA:</strong>&nbsp;Got any questions about today's news or MMOs in general? Leave them in the comments. You'll probably get quick and awesome answers from TF's members, but if not, I'll give it my best to give you an answer in tomorrow's article.<br />
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<strong>Stream Highlight:&nbsp;</strong><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/2gd'>2GD</a>&nbsp;- Despite what the title usually says, this stream is pretty darn entertaining, especially if you're into DOTA2. James is also the main guy behind&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.twitch.tv/thegdstudio'>2GD Studio</a>, also a must watch if you're a fan of eSports (SC2, DOTA2 mainly).<br />
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<strong>Featured TF Forum Thread:</strong>&nbsp;<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://titanfocus.info/topic/474-everquest-next-all-aboard-the-hype-train/'>EverQuest Next - All abord the hype train!</a></div></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TitanFocus/~4/CSpkc6yLyc0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Mon, 24 Jun 2013 09:18:20 +00001ff8a7b5dc7a7d1f0ed65aaa29c04b1ehttp://titanfocus.info/_/mmo/introducing-the-daily-mmo-round-up-column-r72